With $239 Million, George Clooney Kicks Dwayne Johnson’s Butt as Forbes’ Highest Paid Actor of 2018

As if it wasn’t bad enough that George Clooney has those looks, now comes word from Forbes that he’s also the highest paid actor of 2018, having pulled in an estimated $239 million from June 1, 2017, to the same date a year later. When is this guy’s bad luck gonna stop?

At the same time, that figure may have you scratching your head wondering how he earned that kind of money, when his only film in 2017 was Suburbicon, which he directed but did not star in, and which was pretty much a box office disaster. The secret, it would seem, lies in tequila. More specifically, Casamigos Tequila, the brand he founded with Mike Meldman and Rande Gerber back in 2013. As George reflected to Good Morning America, “We never planned on starting a tequila company. You know, we made Casamigos just for us to drink. Once we did launch the company, we thought, ‘Hey, if we could sell a bottle or two, great. If not, at least we still get to drink our own tequila.'”

Well, they sold much more than a bottle or two. In fact, the company was purchased for $700 million by British company Diageo, with there being the possibility of an additional $300 million coming their way over the next 10 years. No one, apparently, is more surprised than George himself, who added, “Four years later when we’re offered a billion dollars to sell the company, yeah, we’re shocked.”  

Maybe the guy we should really feel sorry for is Dwayne Johnson, who barely scraped by over the past twelve months with earnings of $124 million, stemming largely from his films Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rampage, and Skyscraper. The secret for his success, according to a report in People, is his social media presence. “Social media has become the most critical element of marketing a movie for me,” he said. “I have estabished a social media equity with an audience around the world that there’s value in what I’m delivering to them.”

Which must explain why Robert Downey, Jr. is really suffering with a lousy $81 million. Damn those Marvel movies, like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War.