LONDON —Â How much is your time worth in dollars and cents? Obviously Hollywood actors make a lot more money than the average person, but a new survey finds some stars actually make more in a single second than many people do in an entire year!
While she’s definitely a member of the A-list, it may surprise you to find out that Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock tops the list of actors in Oscar-worthy movies in terms of her worth per second to these films! According to a study, commissioned by Onlinecasinos.co.uk, Bullock is worth nearly $95,000 for every second she’s on the screen in recent Oscar-nominated films.
Among her many credits, Bullock took home the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2010 for her work in “The Blind Side.” Sir Ian McKellen comes in second, with a box office worth of just over $90,000 for each second the English movie legend graces the screen.
After these two A-list stars, the drop-off is pretty significant, with Kate Winslet (3rd), Whoopi Goldberg (4th), and Dustin Hoffman (5th) rounding out the top five. However, the study estimates their worth at around $75,000 per second when they appear on screen in a nominated film.
At the opposite end of the scale, screen greats Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise rank 48th and 49th respectively, compiling just over $26,000 of box office worth per second, according to the study’s metrics. Perhaps they need to talk their agents!
When it comes to lots of pay for just a little bit of work, it might stun you to learn that Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins appeared on screen during “The Silence of the Lambs” for just 16 minutes! Despite this, Hopkins was reportedly offered $15 million for the sequel. Talk about working smart!
Top 50 most valuable Oscar-worthy actors
| Actor Name | # of Oscar nominated / winning films | Average screen time proportion | Total screen time in secs | Sum of worldwide box office (inf adjusted, US $) | Worldwide box office * screen time proportion | Worth per second (US $) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandra Bullock | 2 | 61.63% | 7700 | $1,183,721,286.47 | $729,468,242.79 | $94,736.14 |
| Ian McKellen | 2 | 44.55% | 6758 | $1,374,576,990.01 | $612,374,049.05 | $90,614.69 |
| Kate Winslet | 7 | 36.42% | 20476 | $4,281,778,323.29 | $1,559,362,497.08 | $76,155.62 |
| Whoopi Goldberg | 2 | 31.13% | 5393 | $1,310,308,828.42 | $407,833,622.84 | $75,622.77 |
| Dustin Hoffman | 3 | 60.37% | 12696 | $1,551,902,802.28 | $936,935,451.83 | $73,797.69 |
| Tom Hanks | 6 | 59.45% | 28594 | $3,519,213,026.24 | $2,092,113,490.55 | $73,166.17 |
| Joaquin Phoenix | 4 | 62.76% | 20085 | $2,171,886,318.63 | $1,363,075,853.57 | $67,865.36 |
| Johnny Depp | 3 | 50.14% | 10485 | $1,329,208,431.66 | $666,465,107.63 | $63,563.67 |
| Matt Damon | 3 | 45.67% | 10915 | $1,285,893,375.40 | $587,310,367.66 | $53,807.64 |
| Julia Roberts | 4 | 54.51% | 16159 | $1,569,770,779.33 | $855,603,563.28 | $52,949.04 |
| Bradley Cooper | 3 | 56.98% | 13232 | $1,205,425,346.37 | $686,851,362.36 | $51,908.36 |
| Mary McDonnell | 2 | 37.44% | 6538 | $890,214,639.16 | $333,296,360.90 | $50,978.34 |
| Russell Crowe | 3 | 54.14% | 14317 | $1,302,405,914.75 | $705,079,148.72 | $49,247.69 |
| Ralph Fiennes | 2 | 34.78% | 7117 | $1,004,661,639.90 | $349,371,085.28 | $49,089.66 |
| Christoph Waltz | 2 | 33.25% | 6396 | $931,044,250.14 | $309,572,213.17 | $48,400.91 |
| Kevin Spacey | 2 | 37.41% | 5127 | $640,787,895.48 | $239,718,751.70 | $46,756.14 |
| Tommy Lee Jones | 4 | 25.74% | 8194 | $1,426,765,576.38 | $367,178,121.08 | $44,810.61 |
| Colin Firth | 2 | 71.91% | 9342 | $569,966,719.89 | $409,863,068.28 | $43,873.16 |
| Helena Bonham Carter | 2 | 33.77% | 4300 | $557,579,786.01 | $188,266,814.75 | $43,782.98 |
| Ed Harris | 4 | 28.16% | 8215 | $1,198,955,318.92 | $337,625,817.81 | $41,098.70 |
| Clint Eastwood | 2 | 50.79% | 8021 | $640,075,184.44 | $325,094,186.18 | $40,530.38 |
| Juliette Binoche | 2 | 34.50% | 5655 | $640,266,689.69 | $220,859,994.61 | $39,055.70 |
| Helen Hunt | 2 | 41.13% | 5801 | $543,822,190.25 | $223,646,875.74 | $38,553.16 |
| Geoffrey Rush | 4 | 26.93% | 7563 | $1,080,857,868.71 | $291,048,002.60 | $38,483.14 |
| Anne Hathaway | 2 | 35.97% | 5220 | $539,423,375.54 | $194,003,617.01 | $37,165.44 |
| Ryan Gosling | 2 | 61.20% | 8570 | $500,593,576.57 | $306,338,239.18 | $35,745.42 |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | 6 | 56.43% | 32250 | $2,009,223,973.91 | $1,133,704,627.28 | $35,153.63 |
| Brad Pitt | 4 | 41.68% | 14982 | $1,249,204,732.85 | $520,699,762.77 | $34,755.02 |
| Will Smith | 2 | 81.06% | 13181 | $547,257,746.07 | $443,607,128.97 | $33,655.04 |
| Jane Fonda | 2 | 48.19% | 6007 | $417,655,608.28 | $201,247,354.85 | $33,502.14 |
| Jodie Foster | 3 | 47.06% | 9644 | $683,504,545.59 | $321,657,239.15 | $33,353.09 |
| Natalie Portman | 3 | 65.36% | 12247 | $619,587,232.73 | $404,962,215.31 | $33,066.24 |
| Emma Stone | 3 | 42.49% | 9443 | $715,232,349.84 | $303,902,225.45 | $32,182.80 |
| Jonah Hill | 2 | 25.52% | 4784 | $587,501,166.85 | $149,930,297.78 | $31,339.95 |
| Winona Ryder | 2 | 41.62% | 6157 | $460,110,476.79 | $191,474,974.92 | $31,098.75 |
| Alan Arkin | 2 | 10.59% | 1379 | $403,353,072.95 | $42,715,090.43 | $30,975.41 |
| Octavia Spencer | 3 | 20.00% | 4803 | $733,607,385.88 | $146,745,930.76 | $30,552.97 |
| John Malkovich | 2 | 21.67% | 3160 | $442,448,344.79 | $95,856,433.90 | $30,334.31 |
| Debra Winger | 3 | 39.52% | 9238 | $707,912,554.78 | $279,790,638.73 | $30,286.93 |
| Jamie Foxx | 2 | 59.50% | 9828 | $491,240,293.69 | $292,263,412.73 | $29,737.83 |
| Jack Nicholson | 7 | 41.36% | 23492 | $1,677,112,359.41 | $693,701,589.35 | $29,529.27 |
| Keira Knightley | 2 | 46.42% | 6923 | $435,791,011.20 | $202,272,397.85 | $29,217.45 |
| Sally Field | 2 | 25.39% | 3619 | $413,642,302.75 | $105,003,098.55 | $29,014.40 |
| Sigourney Weaver | 3 | 47.52% | 11112 | $655,979,796.99 | $311,743,465.52 | $28,054.67 |
| Mahershala Ali | 2 | 34.93% | 5234 | $418,633,762.48 | $146,228,773.23 | $27,938.24 |
| Melissa McCarthy | 2 | 47.26% | 6210 | $362,408,596.12 | $171,256,182.10 | $27,577.49 |
| Robert De Niro | 4 | 43.09% | 13024 | $825,675,159.84 | $355,762,784.50 | $27,315.94 |
| Tom Cruise | 3 | 49.17% | 12979 | $704,402,630.21 | $346,378,253.36 | $26,687.59 |
| Holly Hunter | 4 | 37.51% | 10903 | $757,086,821.05 | $283,983,266.57 | $26,046.34 |
Click here for full list of Most Valuable Actors
Survey methodology:
Onlinecasinos.co.uk was curious to discover which Oscar-nominated/winning actors over the last 40 years are the most valuable by analyzing the worth per second on screen. Please note that only current living actors with greater than one nominated film were included in the final data.
Firstly, Onlinecasinos.co.uk utilized idolnetworth.com and celebritynetworth.com to gather each actor’s estimated net worth. Secondly, they used screentimecentral.com to calculate the actor’s time spent on screen for all Oscar-nominated films.
The-numbers.com allowed researchers to obtain international box office data. The team only used films from 1980 to the present due to a lack of data for older films. In addition, researchers excluded some films from 2020 and 2021 because of insufficient box office data. All figures were adjusted for inflation using the US CPI data.
For each actor, researchers calculated the sum of worldwide box office earnings of the Oscar-nominated films they were in, plus the time in seconds they were on screen. In addition, they calculated the average proportion of time spent on screen.
The team then multiplied the box office sum by the average time on screen to get a proportion of box office earnings. Please note the final sum was converted using Google finance formula for other currencies. This value was then divided by the number of seconds the actor spent on the screen to get an average worth per second for each actor, revealing the most valuable actors.
What’s the criteria for this list. If true why does Cruise have twice the bank account than her.
How much, per second, was Marlon Brando paid for ‘Superman’?
And that’s just to cover the plastic surgery costs per year! 🙂 (but seriously, I just watched “Bullet Train”, and saw her in another movie not long ago and she looks like a mannequin)
table cell padding?
I’m glad for her. She seems to be a nice person.
This is a bizarre analysis. For Sandra Bullock, you’ve asserted that because she’s on the screen for 62% of the film, that she is solely responsible for 62% of the box office revenue. Even if that were true, the box office revenue isn’t hers. She may have a share of it, however her earnings would better be described by how much she was compensated divided by how many seconds she worked on the film.
Whoopi Goldberg?