Entertainment> Celebrities

Will Ferrell, Eddie Murphy most overpaid actors

(Agencies)
2010-11-05 14:35

LOS ANGELES  – Memo to filmmakers: Beware the high-priced funnyman.

For the second consecutive year, Will Ferrell is the most overpaid actor in the world, and not far behind are a slew of other male comedic actors.

According to Forbes magazine, Ferrell's movies earned only $3.35 for each $1 the star was paid. "Transformers" star Shia LaBeouf, on the other hand, is paid $1 for every $81 his movies earned, so he's the actor determined by Forbes to give the most box office bang for his salary buck.

In making its determination, Forbes looked at the three most recent movies of each actor on its Celebrity 100 list. It added up box office, DVD and television revenue for the three films, factored in production budgets and came up with an operating income for each of them that it then compared to each star's compensation.

In Ferrell's case, "Land of the Lost," "Step Brothers" and "Semi-Pro" were used, while "The Other Guys," which performed better than the other three, was released after the June 1 cutoff date for this year's list. Ferrell returns to theaters on Friday as the voice of the title character in DreamWorks Animation's "Megamind." But unfortunately for Ferrell, cartoons don't count.

The second-most overpaid actor is Eddie Murphy, who was paid $1 for every $4.45 his movies earned. But Forbes' rule against cartoons meant that instead of a couple of hit "Shrek" movies, it looked at "Imagine That," "Meet Dave" and "Norbit."

Other funnymen on the Top 10 list of overpaid actors are Seth Rogen, Vince Vaughn, Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey. If one considers Drew Barrymore a comic actor -- and her past three films were, in fact, comedies -- then seven of the Top 10 overpaid actors are paid specifically to make audiences laugh.

Dramatic and action types cracking the Top 10 were Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise and Matt Damon.