The annual Forbes list of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood has been unveiled, and many have been left confused by the presence of one actor in particular.
Adam Sandler came top in the ranking, taking home $48m after agent and manager fees, followed by Tom Cruise ($46m). Scarlett Johansson was also named as the highest-paid woman in Hollywood, earning $43m in 2025, thanks mostly to her starring role in Jurassic World Rebirth, which grossed nearly $1b at the global box office.
In more surprising news, however, the third highest-paid actor in the world in 2025 was revealed to be none other than Mark Wahlberg. The star earned $44m last year, just $2m less than Cruise and $1m more than Johansson. And observers couldn’t help but ask where the money came from.
“I can’t recall a single thing Mark Wahlberg has done in the past five years,” wrote one confused fan on X. Another asked: “Why is Mark Wahlberg so high on this list, what was he even in last year?”. One person also joked: “No wonder Hollywood is where it’s at, who the f*** is paying all that money to Mark Wahlberg?”
Another person tweeted: “Like what the hell did these guys do to get this much? Sandler sure whatever. Cruise sure. WHO THE F*** IS PAYING MARK WAHLBERG 44 MILLION DOLLARS IN 2025???”
Wahlberg also out-earned F1’s Brad Pitt ($41m), One Battle After Another’s Leonardo DiCaprio ($25m), and The Morning Show star and all-round media mogul Reese Witherspoon ($26m).
The truth of the matter is that while Wahlberg only starred in one movie last year that had a cinema release – January 2025’s Flight Risk – he also appeared in two movies made for streaming, where talent can earn incredibly high salaries in lieu of back-end payments tied to box office revenue.
Both movies earned little traction when it came to word of mouth, but Wahlberg starred in the thriller Play Dirty for Prime Video, and the action comedy The Family Plan 2 for Apple TV. Play Dirty alone reportedly paid Wahlberg $25m for his services.
Last year, Forbes called Wahlberg “the king of streaming” due to his high salaries for various movies made for streaming services that reportedly performed well, including The Union for Netflix and the original The Family Plan for Apple TV.
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It sounds as if Wahlberg pivoted out of films made for cinemas at the right time, too – in 2017, Forbes declared him the most overpaid actor on their high earnings list. He earned $68m total for a pair of box office bombs: Patriots Day and Deepwater Horizon.
Other stars who appear in the new Forbes list include Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown (at age 22, the youngest actor on the list), who earned $26m from her work with Netflix, and Cameron Diaz, who Forbes noted was lured out of acting retirement via a $45m deal with Netflix. Her placement on the list – ranking 17th with $20m in 2025 – is a result of her salary for the Netflix action comedy Back in Action. She next stars in the Netflix comedy Bad Day, which is scheduled for release in 2026.
