august 4, 2017 forbes india | 65- Simon Cowell
PersonAlity UK $43.5 Mln - Phil Mickelson
Athlete US $43.5 Mln - Tom Cruise
Actor US $43 Mln - Kenny Chesney
MusiciAn US $42.5 Mln - Steve Harvey
PersonAlity US $42.5 Mln
The talk show host joins our ranking
thanks to paychecks from Family Feud,
Little Big Shots, his eponymous gabfest
and, yes, even the Miss Universe gig,
which he retained despite announcing
the wrong winner in 2015. - Luke Bryan
MusiciAn US $42 Mln - Celine Dion
MusiciAn Canada $42 Mln - Jay Z
MusiciAn US $42 Mln - Sofía Vergara
Actor Colombia $41.5 Mln - Kylie Jenner
PersonAlity US $41 Mln
At just 19, the youngest list member—
and most junior scion of the Kardashi-
an-Jenner clan—earns a small fortune
from endorsements, her family’s reality
TV show, a namesake cosmetics com-
pany and clothing line. - Bruno Mars
MusiciAn US $39 Mln - Tiësto
MusiciAn netherlandS $39 Mln - Russell Westbrook
Athlete US $38.6 Mln - Sebastian Vettel
Athlete Germany $38.5 Mln
money is bigger—Netflix gives Sandler a
budget of around $60 million per movie—as
is the audience. Netflix, which generated
$8.8 billion in revenue last year (it keeps
viewership numbers largely secret), said
in April its members have spent more
than 500 million hours watching Sandler’s
movies since December 2015, an average
of five hours of Sandler per subscriber.
Jerry Seinfeld earned more than any
other funnyman on our list (No 18, $69
million), largely because of two carriers:
Hulu, which owns streaming rights to his
eponymous sitcom and pays syndication
fees, and Netflix, which insiders say is doling
out $20 million apiece for two stand-up
specials plus more for the rights to his web
series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
It’s the 21st-century version of an HBO
special, but Netflix is paying far more than
the channel ever did. Dave Chappelle (No
43, $47 million) is back on the Celebrity 100
after an 11-year hiatus, nabbing $20 million
per hour for his three specials. Chris Rock
(No 30, $57 million) is pocketing $20 million
for each of his two stand-up specials—four
times what he received in 2008 for his last
one, HBO’s Kill the Messenger. Paul Verna,
principal video analyst at eMarketer, says
of comedy specials: “If they were drivers
for subscriptions on cable, they would
be the same for the streaming world.”
Streaming is also filling the vacuum
left by the collapse of the DVD and home
entertainment market, which used to nearly
double revenue from theatrical releases. But
as the bottom fell out, crushing the income
of studios like Paramount and actors like
Sandler, a ray of hope appeared for him
and others who have a core fan base. His
domestic box office continued to disappoint:
That’s My Boy (2012) managed just $36.9
million in the US on a $70 million budget,
while Blended (2014) earned $46.3 million
in the US and cost $40 million. But Sandler
drew a sizable, nearly comparable audience
at home: Blended tallied $18.5 million in DVD
and Blu-Ray sales, more than double the
disc sales of the Sandler-less Horrible Bosses
2 , which performed similarly in theaters.
“If the DVD sales and rentals are
there, that means there is a Sandler
Nation, [even if] it’s a guilty pleasure
for them,” said Paul Dergarabedian,
senior media analyst at ComScore.
Enter Netflix. In 2014, Sandler signed an
estimated $250 million pact to make four
movies exclusively for the service—the more
asinine, the better. “Let the streaming begin!”
said Sandler, who declined to comment for
this story, in a press release at the time.
His review-agnostic audience followed
through. His first release, The Ridiculous Six
(2015), which critics deemed “frequently
unwatchable”, was the most-viewed film on
Netflix in its first month, the company said.
These days, even critical darlings like Brad
Pitt are mining streaming’s deep pockets;the actor was said to have been paid $20
million to star in the recently released Netflix
battle satire War Machine. Other Hollywood
mainstays continue to benefit, with the video
giant shelling out $90 million for Will Smith’s
Bright; sources say Smith will pocket some
$30 million. The cash should keep coming
for the Celebrity 100’s comedians, too. In
the wake of Rock’s massive payday, Louis
CK (No 34, $52 million) and Amy Schumer
(No 69, $37.5 million) banked double-digit
millions for their taped performances.
Meanwhile, Netflix is doubling down
on Sandler with another four movies
at similar budgets. It’s a fraction of
the $6 billion it plans to dish out on
entertainment this year, most of which
will be spent on licensing other people’s
content. Though analysts question how
long Netflix can sustain such spending,
it’s stock is up 65 percent in the past 12
months, and its market cap is $71.1 billion.
Sandler and his ilk are laughing
all the way to the couch.Sandler’s The Ridiculous Six was Netflix’s
most-viewed film in its first monthTop: sHuTTErsTock.com; J. kEmpin / rEuTErs