The Hollywood Reporter has released its list of the highest-paid actresses of 2006. For the first time in years, human cash register Julia Roberts is nowhere to be found, since she sat the year out. Her replacement at the top? Drumroll… (prosthetic) nose-wrinkle… Nicole Kidman!
Really? The Oscar-winner reportedly makes $16-17 million per movie. If you consider her lackluster year — her only projects were voicing a penguin in Happy Feet and starring as artist Diane Arbus in this month’s indie flick Fur – that figure seems a little high. We’ll see if she’s worth it in 2007’s big-budget sci-fi flick Invasion. Meanwhile, the rest of the top earners seem typical enough. Reese, Renée, Drew, Cameron… wow, reading those names, I conjured up some face/body-blending imagery and realized those four could all probably stand in for each other on set. I wonder what the going rate for subbing-in would be. A mil a day? Plus tax?
But what do you think? Should Nicole be making that much? Do you like living in a world in which Kirsten Dunst gets $10 million for showing up? And which actresses should be on the list that aren’t? Dakota Fanning comes to mind…
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Yes. Of all the names on the list, Nicole Kidman is the only one with enough acting chops to get this Netflix queen off her sofa and into the theater.
Kidman has made so many duds over her career that I can’t understand why she still commands so much money. Worth it? nope.
The most underrated and underpaid actress working today is Kate Winslet.
Nicole Kidman is nothing more then a mediocre actress with a very low box office pull. Her pay should be cut in half or more! The critics need to stop praising her for the garbage that she puts out there. There needs to be a whole new set of highly paid actresses. This list is old/boring/dull.
I find this list very strange. I know that these figures include some upcoming movies for these ladies, but what was the last big flick that Kidman made? Bewitched? That was 2005.
Did Halle get paid that much for being in X3? Diaz for “The Holiday”?
I guess Dunst can thank Spider-Man 3 for somehow making onto this list.
A lot of these ladies, my first question is “what was the last big movie they were in? I can hardly remember”.
People missing…
Sandra Bullock & Jodie Foster (the ladies with real box-office drawing power)
Nicole’s lackluster credits for this year were already mentioned.
Here are this year’s films (so far) for the rests of the actresses mentioned above:
Drew Barrymore: Curious George
Renee, Reese and Cameron: (umm…a little help?) Cameron has “The Holiday” coming out in a few weeks, that’s all I’ve got.
That list is deceiving in that it seems to be counting deals made this year (it certainly isn’t for MOVIES released this year).
Regardless, that list is kinda sad…which is why, even at age 57, MERYL STREEP (“The Devil Wears Prada” was a big hit, and “A Prairie Home Companion” was very well received and made a little coin) deserves to be the highest paid actress in Hollywood. Deal with that, rest of overpaid actresses!
Ditto, Mike. Kate Winslet deserves to be the #1 paid actress across the board. Sublimely talented and incredibly underrated.
Nicole Kidman is a good actress, but her box office grosses do not justify such a high asking price. However, if studios are willing to pay it, can you blame her for taking it? If she wants to keep that price, she should make better career choices (Uh, no more Stepford Wives or Bewitched, Nicole!)
I like Nicole Kidman. She’s cute, dissed her ex for being shorter than her and she never got into scientology. And then, in that UN movie she made, old girl has a thrilling chase scene that was filmed with her riding a classic Vespa scooter. She made the top of my fantasy list after that.
Nicole’s a fun actress who plays diverse roles, and it’s slick to me that they are paying her the proverbial fat cash. I just wish Gina Torres and Grace Park’s fine azzes were making that kind of money too.
I know somebody said it already, but what about Sandra Bullock? Would ANYONE have seen “The Lake House” had it not been for her? Plus, she (in part) helped make Crash earn as much as it did in the box office.
And Jodie Foster makes sense too. Flightplan? Inside Man? Weren’t both those movies big hits?
i’m not saying anne hathaway(forgive my spelling)should get all the money but she has made more money making movies than jennifer,bless her boring #10 soul aniston.
Call me crazy, but none of these actresses really deserve those paychecks (esp. Cameron Diaz-how annoying and ugly is she?)
kirsten dunst shouldn’t get ten DOLLARS for showing up anywhere with that snaggletoothed face of hers. she is someone whose appeal is ENTIRELY lost on me.
Kate Winslet and Kate Blanchett should be #1 and #2 on the list.
Nicole hasn’t done anything interesting in ages, she’s coasting on LONG AGO past successes. And her frozen, botoxed forehead is making her painful to watch.
Has Nicole Kidman had some kind of plastic surgery? Eyes, cheeks, upper lip? I’ve been trying to figure this out for months…she just looks weird.
If it weren’t for her artsy-fartsy movies, Kidman would be making Lifetime movies. She’s overrated and overpaid.
It’s simple. If you’re an actor who continually draws in audiences on opening weekend and big box-office numbers overall, then you deserve the multi-million dollar paycheck(s).
Which is exactly why Nicole Kidman topping this list is so mind-boggling b/c that woman has headlined numerous big-budget box-office flops during the years. She couldn’t draw in audiences to one of her films to save her life. If I were a studio-executive, I’d refuse to pay her $16-17 million per film salary based on her horrible track-record.
And before anyone “clever” wants to re-buttle with Happy Feet’s strong box-office, that doesn’t count. That film was advertised on the imagery of dancing penguins and not it’s all-star (voice) cast. It’s a family-friendly CG-animated film released during Thanksgiving; a time when parents want to take their children to see something “nice!”
I honestly can’t name one person I know who goes to see Nicole Kidman films simply b/c she’s involved. In fact, it’s the exact opposite…
Nicole deserves to make all that money if only for suffering Tom Cruise for all those years. I used to hate her when she was with Tom because she seemed like a no-talent hack who couldn’t find work if not for her husband. Then she got divorced, did “The Others” and has really made some daring choices. She dopesn’t seem to choose projects based merely on money, and that is something to respect.
Nicole Kidman hasn’t made any more duds than most of the other actress out there. The only actresses that should command huge paychecks based only on box office pull are Reese Witherspoon and Julia Roberts with Renee Zellweger and Sandra Bullock coming in a distant third.
That said, I say good for you Nicole! When actors like Denzel Washington or Matt Damon are revealed to be making that kind of money, hardly anyone blinks despite the fact they’re also not guaranteed box office draws, but Nicole’s having her talent questioned.
I think the question should be why aren’t these actresses making $20M plus like their male counterparts?
Interesting list…the only actress on it whose movie I would consider seeing just cause she’s in it would be Reese Witherspoon. And I make it a point to avoid Cameron Diaz’s movies cause I can’t STAND her. Any no name could voice Princess Fiona in Shrek, so I am baffled as to how she earns so much.
I know that Rachel McAdams hasn’t made a movie this year, but she is in 4 of the 100 favorite movies over at Netflix, and none of the other women on this list can match that. She is the only actress besides the ones mentioned already by posters who deserves the money these women are earning.
why the hell are these people paid so damn much? they should go back to the salaries of the golden age, you know 130,000 per picture! something like that. 17 million? I wonder how many people we could help with that money?
One thing that these lists never account for is overseas box office gross. A lot of Nicole Kidman’s films don’t do blockbuster status in the US on their first theatrical run but when you add in the foreign grosses and DVD sales Nicole earns her paycheck. Also, a lot of the types of movies female stars are in don’t usually have big budgets compared to the types of movies male stars are in, so their grosses don’t look spectacular when you look at the raw numbers, but when you weigh it against budget and marketing costs, it makes sense to pay a female star $10-15 million because you’re not spending another $50 million on CGI effects.
Kate Winslet should be #1 on the list simply because she’s one of the most talented and entertaining actresses working today. Cate Blanchett should also be higher on that list and Maggie Gyllanhaal and Toni Colette.
Um…”Should Nicole be making that much?” Should anybody?
Nicole Kidman isn’t a terrible actress, but the only time she really impressed me was Moulin Rouge. And even then, I think Ewan McGregor overshadowed her in every single scene they shared. I don’t understand how she got an Oscar nod for that, and he got snubbed!
Cold Mountain was good, too, but her psuedo-southern accent killed me. At least Renee Zellwegger aced the part of Ruby.
Basically, I think Kidman needs to make better choices. She’s been in too many “eh” movies, and even when it she makes it into a good one (like Cold Mountain), she tends to be miscast. Either way, I’ve never seen her name on a poster and gotten excited.
That seems awfully high and unwarranted for Nicole to earn so much. Sure she has an Oscar. And made some decent movies. But she hasn’t been able to be the reason the movie did well. Other actors get that honor. So how Nicole could earn so much. Wierd! But then Julia was sitting out the last year. So she would have that title likely.
HILARY SWANK – she’s won two oscars already
Remember that Cameron Diaz got at least 12 mil for voicing Shrek 3…and Kate Winslet should be paid waay more. I like Nicole Kidman though, and her choices have seemed to be getting better and better..and next year she has an all star line-up. Invasion, The Untitled Noah Baumbach movie, and Golden Compass. (Nicole was paid for all of those this year, btw, and that’s your answer to how she made it to the top of the list)
I definitely think that Ms Kidman is overhyped due to the fact that she was married to a certain actor Tom Cruise. How sad is that – to be famous just because you have been in a marriage (fake or not) with s.o. for 10 years and then he famously dumped you?
She does try to make an image of sexy, independent and talented actress but to me she is just a fake and impostor. Can’t really act or transmit any human emotion and looks strained and uncomfortbale on screen most of the times.
Also I watched Bewitched – sorry there is nothing that is going to make me think of her as a good actress again.
But Kate Winslet and Merril streep – these are the actresses who deserve their hype and paycheks! Oh and I think Rachel Weisz has definitely bloomed too.
Reese definitely deserves to be on the list, and so does Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman. The only one that doesn’t make sense is Kirsten Dunst. She’s not all that, so I don’t know why she would get paid so much. And the fact that Cameron Diaz makes so much, especially now that her looks are sliding downhill and JT is going to dump her any day now, is beyond me.