Natalie Portman: Forbes' Most Bankable Star
Natalie Portman is the most bankable star in Hollywood.
This according to Forbes, which has come up with a clunky algorithm to
determine which actors and actresses provide the biggest bang for their
bucks.
Portman finished ahead of franchise fixtures Kristen Stewart, Shia
LaBeouf, Robert Pattinson and Daniel Radcliffe. Per Forbes, the
"Black Swan" actress earns her employers $42.70 per each dollar paid. Here's how that figure was determined:
We looked at the last three films each actor starred in over
the last three years that opened in more than 2,000 theaters,
calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or
her) salary. We didn’t count movies where the actor was in a supporting
or large ensemble role and we didn’t count animated movies. The actors
who score well on this list tend to have small paydays and star in
highly profitable movies.
As Forbes notes,
that means "Thor," which Portman co-starred in as the female lead, was
not counted among her three films; "Black Swan," "No Strings Attached"
and "Your Highness," however, were. That's curious, if only because
Portman's role in "Your Highness" -- which co-starred James Franco,
Danny McBride and Zooey Deschanel -- could also be considered of the
supporting variety. (Of course, adding "Thor" to Portman's tally would
have knocked off "Black Swan," her most profitable film.)
This is to say nothing of the fact that the
wide-release opening of "Black Swan" on Dec. 17, 2010 covered just 959 theaters, and not 2,000 theaters. To be fair, the film
eventually landed in over 2,000 theaters, grossing $106 million at the domestic box office and $329 million worldwide.
Regardless of those issues, the list proves that Portman has become
one of Hollywood's most budget-friendly A-list stars. Her last
appearance onscreen was in the aforementioned "Thor"; Portman will next
be seen in "Thor: The Dark World" as well as the Terrence Malick films
"Knights of the Cups" and an untitled Malick project previously called
"Lawless."
