Tyler Perry has capped off another successful year with a distinct honor. His hard work and multi-faceted career has earned him the number one spot on Forbes Magazine’s highest paid men in entertainment list.
The magazine claims that Perry brought in an estimated $130 million from May 2010-2011. Considering the success of his films “Madea’s Big Happy Family”, “For Colored Girls” and his TBS series “Meet the Browns”, we’re not surprised by the number. Over the past year, he also extended his distribution deal with Lionsgate and managed to land the title role in the highly anticipated feature “I, Alex Cross”.
Despite the underwhelming performance of 2010’s “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, producer Jerry Bruckheimer managed to snag the number two spot with $113 million. He quickly rebounded earlier this year with “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Bruckheimer also oversees a slew of successful TV shows including “The Amazing Race” and the “CSI” franchise.
Steven Spielberg ranks third with $107 million. After a three-year hiatus, Spielberg is back in the director’s chair with two movies that will compete against each other at the box office this winter: “War Horse” and “The Adventures of Tintin.” The films couldn’t be more different. “War Horse” is an intimate story set during World War I about a boy searching for his horse, which has been sent into battle with the cavalry. “Tintin” is a big-budget, motion-capture animated film that marks the director’s first foray into 3-D.
Elton John, the only musician on the list, ranks 4th with $100 million. John, 64, is still going strong at an age when most people are thinking about retirement. He just had a child, via surrogate, with his partner David Furnish, and his world tour brought in $204 million.
Simon Cowell rounds out our top five with $90 million. Cowell left the show that made him famous in America, “American Idol,” in order to launch his own talent show. “The X Factor” is set to debut September 21 and will feature another former “American Idol” judge — the ever-wacky Paula Abdul.
Overall, the Forbes list mostly consists of producers, directors, hosts, musicians and a few sports stars. But lucky Leonardo DiCaprio is the only thespian to make the list based on his acting credits alone. He brought in major bank in 2010 ($77 million) thanks to hits like “Shutter Island” and Best Picture Nominee “Inception”.
Check out Forbes’ complete top 10 below:
1.Tyler Perry $130 million
2.Jerry Bruckheimer $113 million
3.Steven Spielberg $107 million
4.Elton John $100 million
5.Simon Cowell $90 million
6.James Patterson $84 million
7.Dr. Phil McGraw $80 million
8.Leonardo DiCaprio $77 million (highest paid actor)
9.Howard Stern $76 million
10.Tiger Woods $75 million.
