Due in large part to the poor performance of his critical and commercial flop Mortdecai, Johnny Depp tops Forbes’ list of the most overpaid actors of 2015. Depp’s 2015 slate of films returned only $1.20 for each dollar of Depp’s salary; once the various other expenses of film production—like his co-stars’ salaries, crew, construction, marketing, catering, and, of course, hair and makeup—are taken into account, that’s a losing formula for an actor who once generated $3.7 billion for Disney in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies.
Depp unseats Adam Sandler, who topped Forbes’ Most Overpaid list for the last two years in a row and might have again, if Pixels were not released too late for the list’s June 2015 cutoff. (Black Mass, which came out in September, might have also helped Depp’s numbers, but not by much.) Second and third place on this year’s list were Denzel Washington and Will Ferrell, who generated just $6.50 and $6.80 per $1 paid, respectively. (Compare this to Chris Evans, a relative bargain whose films produced $181.80 for every $1 paid.)
Of course, all three of these actors could just be having a bad year; Depp in particular may be saved by the Alice In Wonderland and Pirates Of The Caribbean movies he has coming out in the next couple of years. Actresses were not included on Forbes’ Most Overpaid list, presumably because that’s not really a thing.