--- title: Johnny Depp Is the World's Most Overpaid Actor (Again) description: For two years in a row, Johnny Depp was named Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actor by Forbes. He starred in the flops "Alice Through the Looking Glass" in 2016 and "Mordecai" in 2015. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-12-08T16:23:42.000Z' modified: '2016-12-08T16:23:42.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Actors - Box-office - films - Hollywood - movie flops - movies word_count: 372 canonical: https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Johnny Depp attends the red carpet](https://img.money.com/2016/12/160812_em_johnnydepp.jpg) For the second year in a row, [*Forbes*](http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2016/12/07/johnny-depp-is-hollywoods-most-overpaid-actor-for-the-second-year-in-a-row/#2033d17d5091) has bestowed upon Johnny Depp the dubious title of [Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actor](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/emjl45efmhm/hollywoods-most-overpai/#35da0d2960a6). Depp, of course, is one of the world's biggest stars at the box office. According to [Box Office Mojo](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?id=johnnydepp.htm), his films have collectively grossed $3.4 billion and counting, at an average of $75 million per release. *Alice Through the Looking Glass*, the lone film released in 2016 featuring Depp, hit $77 million in ticket sales. But the *Alice in Wonderland* sequel was [deemed a bust](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-x-men-apocalypse-898171) nonetheless because its results paled in comparison to its highly successful predecessor—and because the film was so expensive to make. The budget for *Alice Through the Looking Glass* was reportedly north of [$170 million](http://screenrant.com/alice-through-looking-glass-box-office-bomb/), and Depp's salary accounted for an outsized chunk of that. "Thanks to recent ticket booth disappointments, Depp is this year’s most overpaid actor," *Forbes* explained. "His last three movies returned just $2.80 at the box office for every $1 he was paid on them." The Most Overpaid Actors list is based on how much each performer earns in comparison to ticket sales for his or her films that year. In 2015, Depp was [crowned Most Overpaid Actor](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/emjl45edmfk/1-johnny-depp/#36be05566af4) due largely to *Mordecai*, widely regarded as one of the year's worst movies. While Depp's back-to-back achievement is a dubious one, he is in A-list company. Will Smith, who was paid extremely well for starring in the subpar box office performers *Concussion* and *Focus*, came in second place in 2016, returning $5 in ticket sales for every $1 he earned. Channing Tatum, Will Ferrell, and George Clooney rounded out the top (bottom?) five. Depp isn't likely to be a three-time Most Overpaid Actor, however, at least not in consecutive years. He is starring in two films set to be released in 2017, and it would be shocking if both were flops. One is [*Murder on the Orient Express*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402236/), a remake of the classic detective novel by Agatha Christie being directed by (and also starring) the highly respected [Kenneth Branagh](http://variety.com/2015/film/news/kenneth-branagh-star-directing-murder-on-the-orient-express-1201645936/). The other is the fifth film in the blockbuster [*Pirates of the Caribbean*](http://pirates.disney.com/) series. Depp's top three highest-grossing films were previous *Pirates* movies, and every one in the series has topped $250 million in ticket sales. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Movies", "item": "https://money.com/movies/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Johnny Depp Is the World's Most Overpaid Actor (Again)" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/", "name": "Johnny Depp Is the World's Most Overpaid Actor (Again)", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-12-08T16:23:42.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-12-08T16:23:42.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Johnny Depp Is the World's Most Overpaid Actor (Again)", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/12/160812_em_johnnydepp.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 2057, "caption": "160812_EM_JOHNNYDEPP" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-12-08T16:23:42.000Z", "description": "For two years in a row, Johnny Depp was named Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actor by Forbes. He starred in the flops \"Alice Through the Looking Glass\" in 2016 and \"Mordecai\" in 2015.", "abstract": "For two years in a row, Johnny Depp was named Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actor by Forbes. He starred in the flops \"Alice Through the Looking Glass\" in 2016 and \"Mordecai\" in 2015.", "@id": "https://money.com/worlds-most-overpaid-actor-johnny-depp/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-12-08T16:23:42.000Z", "wordCount": 372, "keywords": [ "Actors", "Box-office", "films", "Hollywood", "movie flops", "movies" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Film", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film" ] } ] } ] } ```