Drew Barrymore is your new Most Overpaid Actor In Hollywood

By Sean O'Neal | November 3, 2011 | 8:58pm

Aux Features Film

Bored with discussing the European markets, Forbes has distracted itself with its favorite pastime: assembling a list of wealthy celebrities that you should be mad at for how little they’ve done to earn it. Today it’s the magazine’s annual Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actors, as though anyone can ever receive too much money for enriching our lives with escapist stories, and faces to look at that aren’t so homely like regular people. But purely for argument’s sake, the list examines a star’s compensation for their last three films, then compares that to what those movies cost versus what they made, all for an average return on a studio’s investment. For instance, this year’s Most Overpaid Actor is Drew Barrymore, whose last three films—which we dare you to name without checking IMDB—returned about 40 cents for every dollar the studio spent on her. Essentially, the studios may want to consider casting an equally cost-efficient, equally bubbly can of soda, then recycling it after principal photography.

But in a way it’s a minor victory for Drew Barrymore, who went from hanging around the bottom of the list in 2009 and 2010 to now skyrocketing straight to the top, where at least she’s the “most” of something. Also making repeat appearances: Eddie Murphy, who remains rock solid at No. 2 and dearly hoping that Tower Heist can finally erase the damage of Meet Dave, plus former two-time champion Will Ferrell, who finally falls to No. 3 this year but is, like so many, still suffering for Land Of The Lost. Among the only newcomers: Reese Witherspoon, who probably shouldn’t have made that elephant movie; Nicole Kidman, reunited here with ex-husband Tom Cruise in a way that is somehow more dignified than their marriage; and Nicolas Cage, who is no doubt angry that the metrics only look at an actor’s last three films, rather than taking into account all the films he released the month before that.