Guess what . . . MARK WAHLBERG, of all people, is now the highest paid actor in the world. And let's be honest, NO ONE saw this coming 25 years ago . . . even at the height of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch hysteria.
Mark is #1 on the annual "Forbes" list of 'The Highest Paid Actors' . . . after he raked in $68 million over the past year. That includes his paychecks from movies like "Daddy's Home 2" and "Transformers: The Last Knight" . . . as well as his A&E reality show "Wahlburgers", and his AT&T ads.
DWAYNE 'THE ROCK' JOHNSON is a close second with $65 million. He was #1 last year . . . and ROBERT DOWNEY JR.was #1 the three years before that, but he fell to #6 on this year's list.
The list also includes some foreign actors. JACKIE CHAN finished at #5, ahead of a few Bollywood stars.
Here's the Top 20:
1. Mark Wahlberg, $68 million
2. The Rock, $65 million
3. Vin Diesel, $54.5 million
4. Adam Sandler, $50.5 million
5. Jackie Chan, $49 million . . . mostly from the Chinese box office.
6. Robert Downey Jr., $48 million
7. Tom Cruise, $43 million
8. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, $38 million
9. Bollywood actor Salman Khan, $37 million
10. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, $35.5 million
11. Chris Hemsworth, $31.5 million
12. Tom Hanks, $31 million
13. Samuel L. Jackson, $30.5 million
14. Ryan Gosling, $29 million
15. Ryan Reynolds, $21.5 million
16. Matt Damon, $21 million
17. Jeremy Renner, $19 million
18. Chris Evans, $18 million
19. Chris Pratt, $17 million
20. Mark Ruffalo, $13 million
Eddie Redmayne and Liam Neeson are among the actors who JUST missed out on making the list.
The actors who dropped off the list this year include: Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, and Will Smith, mostly due to lighter schedules. None of them are hurting or anything . . . except maybe Johnny Depp.
As usual, Hollywood's highest-paid actors out-earned their female counterparts . . . the Top 10 actors banked a total of $488.5 million, which is nearly THREE TIMES more than the $172.5 million that the Top 10 actresses got.
And only THREE actresses made more than $20 million over the past year. 16 actors surpassed that mark.
(You can revisit the highest paid actresses list, here.)