Highest-paid actress honor goes to someone you may not expect. Unless, of course, you’re a diehard “Twilight” fan who follows every single step that its female lead takes. Kristen Stewart, otherwise known as Bella Swan/Cullen, has risen to the top of Forbes highest paid actresses list. The “Zathura” co-star may only be 22 years-old, but she’s managed to cash a heftier paycheck than industry types who are twice her age.
Thanks to the resounding success of the “Twilight” franchise, Stewart was able to bank a cool $34.5 million in just under 12 months. After the franchise exploded into cineplexes across the globe four years ago, the actress has been cashing all sorts of crazy paychecks. In fact, since replacing Stewart at this point would be suicide for the series, she was able to demand $12.5 million per film, and that’s not including the hefty slice of cinematic cash she gets off the back end. Sparking vampires in love, apparently, is insanely big business.
Coming in at a close second is “There’s Something About Mary” alumni Cameron Diaz, who managed to bank nearly $34 million thanks to the surprise success of her $20 million comedy “Bad Teacher”. After the film’s theatrical jaunt had concluded, the raunchy comedy ultimately made $216 million, some of which ended up in Diaz’s bank account. Toss in her paychecks from both “The Green Hornet” and “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and you’ll understand why Diaz is currently sitting pretty in more ways than one.
Rounding out the top three is Sandra Bullock, who, apparently, is still making quite a bit of scratch from her 2009 hit “The Blind Side”. And while she hasn’t really done much since then — “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” came nearly two years later — her paycheck from Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming science fiction effort “Gravity” helped the “Demolition Man” co-star rise above her peers in the earnings department. Not too shabby considering the gap between pictures.
Forbes, in case you were wondering, put together this list using a number of different factors, including upfront pay, profit participation, residuals, endorsements, and advertising work.