How big a star is Angelina Jolie? This big: she hasn't starred in a movie since 2010's "The Tourist," her last acting credit was voicing the Tigress in 2011's "Kung Fu Panda 2," and she's still Hollywood's highest paid actress, according to a story in the new issue of Forbes.
The respected business and finance journal has published a list of Hollywood's Highest Paid Actresses, and Jolie easily tops the list, having raked in $33 million between June 2012 and June 2013. Forbes reports that Jolie was paid $15 million to star in "Maleficent," a revisionist version of "Sleeping Beauty" told from the point-of-view of the drowsy princess' magical foe. The movie is due in theaters in July 2014. The rest of Jolie's massive income is from endorsement deals, like the reported $10 million she's getting paid to be the face of Louis Vitton.
Even if she hasn't been seen on screen much recently, Jolie has certainly been in the public eye, having revealed in June that she'd undergone a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene. Jolie also directed a feature film, "In The Land Of Blood and Honey," that arrived in theaters in 2011, and her next directorial effort, "Unbroken" (with a script by Joel and Ethan Coen), is expected to arrive in theaters in time for Christmas 2014.
Though Jolie tops the list, Hollywood's newest sweetheart, Jennifer Lawrence, was having a pretty good year as well, coming in at No. 2 with a $26 million payday. Lawrence won an Oscar for her performance in the hit "Silver Linings Playbook," and starred in the first movie in the "Hunger Games" franchise; with "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" both in the works (as well as "American Hustle" which re-teams her with "Silver Linings" director David O. Russell), Lawrence seems poised to stay high on this list for a while.
Kristen Stewart — who was named the top-paid actress last year — claims the No. 3 spot with $22 million, though Forbes seems less than optimistic about her future in the rankings. With the "Twilight" franchise over, Stewart may not have that many box-office locomotives in her future, even though "Snow White and the Huntsman" was a blockbuster and a sequel is in the works for 2015. Jennifer Aniston is ranked fourth, at $20 million, thanks to her reliable presence in movies like the upcoming "We're The Millers," and endorsements like her Smart Water ads. Emma Stone is fifth with $16 million in paychecks thanks to the strength of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Gangster Squad."
Elsewhere on the list, the big surprise is how low some actresses ranked. Despite her strength as one of Hollywood's most reliable draws (confirmed by the recent success of "The Heat"), Sandra Bullock came in at a less-than-amazing number seven, with earnings of $14 million. And though Julia Roberts was as big a female star as Hollywood had in the 1990s, for this fiscal year she closes out the top ten, having earned $11 million from the commercial disappointment "Mirror Mirror." Perhaps Julia should ask Angelina for some advice on how to rake in the big bucks – after all, Julia's worked with Brad Pitt, too.
