Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Sunday, March 15th. Today on Forbes, the highest paid

actors of 2025. Hollywood's collective panic over consolidation, the rise of AI, and declining

theatrical ticket sales, now includes another concern, the supposed death of movie stardom.

Top musicians, athletes, internet creators, and even podcasters now regularly out-earned their

counterparts in film and television. And the box office failure of Dwayne Johnson, last year's

highest-paid actor, in The Smashing Machine,

Julia Roberts in After the Hunt, or Glenn Powell in The Running Man, are further proof to many

studio executives that an A-list name above the title is no longer enough to guarantee commercial

success. The trend was more pronounced in 2025,

when fewer star-driven movies were released.

The combined earnings of the 20 highest-paid actors in Hollywood

is still impressive,

but their collective $590 million haul

is down 20% from last year's $730 million, and this year's top earner, Adam Sandler,

who earned $48 million after fees paid to his agent and manager, fell well below last year's

number one, which was $88 million. Pay may not be rising, but it's at little risk of falling too far, as studios will still

write eight-figure checks every year to actors who they believe can bring attention to a project.

It's why Universal attached Scarlett Johansson, who earned $43 million this year, to its

Jurassic franchise reboot, and Apple put Brad Pitt, who earned $41 million,

in the driver's seat for F-1, two of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of the year.

While one battle after another was the lowest performing movie in nearly 15 years for Leonardo

DiCaprio, who earned $25 million, it's hard to imagine tonight's

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