Despite a few box office flops of late, Eddie Murphy has been one of the biggest big screen comedy stars of the last three decades; yet according to Forbes magazine, he is vastly overpaid.
The 51-year-old Academy Award nominee topped than annual list of actors who supposedly deliver the smallest bang for their buck.
Murphy is among an elite class of Hollywood stars who has secured $20 million paydays for his feature films, but according to Forbes he only brings in $2.30 for every $1 he is paid.
Still, in Murphy’s defense, the methodology for the study only takes into account the last three major releases of an actor or actress. In Murphy’s case this includes the unfortunate stumbles of Imagine That, Tower Heist and A Thousand Words, three of his most poorly received films.
Perhaps surprisingly, A-lister Denzel Washington also appears on the Forbes list.
“Washington’s films do fine at the box office, but he generally commands an outsized paycheck,” reports Forbes.
Their research did not take Washington’s latest hit film Flight into account, which has already earned $84 million on a small $30 million budget.
Murphy landed on Forbes list of overpaid actors last year too, coming in second to actress Drew Barrymore.