Huge earnings in 2010 were attributed to the fact that two of his films, were among the 15 highest-earning movies at the global box office, managing to rank third with $825 million and $1.1 Billion in total global box office earnings. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t dreaming: His “Inception” money is all too real, landing the leading man at the top of a ranking of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors.

At a cool $77 million in earnings, from the aforementioned Christopher Nolan film and Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” Leo took the top spot on Forbes’ list from the previous year’s winner, Johnny Depp.

The 36-year-old actor’s huge earnings in 2010 were attributed to the fact that two of his films, Inception and Shutter Island, were among the 15 highest-earning movies at the global box office, with Inception managing to rank third with $825 million in earnings.

DiCaprio may not have scored any award nods this year, but he can certainly laugh all the way to bank. He will pocket at least $50 million for his work on Inception alone – a figure which will no doubt increase substantially now that the film has been released on DVD.

His highest pay yet for a single film came thanks to a deal he struck with the film’s director Christopher Nolan.

DiCaprio agreed to take a pay cut below his average $20 million pay cheque to star in the “risky” film, but in return he and Nolan agreed to split a share of the first-dollar gross points. That meant that he got money coming directly off the top of ticket sales, instead of his earnings accumulating only after the studio had earned back its production and advertising spending, which is how most deals are structured.

Hollywood newcomer, 21-year-old Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, tied for second place on the list with her Alice in Wonderland co-star Johnny Depp.

Wasikowska’s films, including Alice and the critically-acclaimed comedy The Kids Are All Right, took a staggering $1.03 billion at the global box office.

Forbes described Wasikowska as the “big surprise on our list”.

In fourth spot was Robert Downey Jr with $808 million in earnings for Iron Man 2 and Due Date.

Daniel Radcliffe was in fifth position with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which only opened a month ago, already earning $780 million.

Fellow Brit Robert Pattinson came in sixth with $749 million for his Twilight films and the $56 million Remember Me, which helped him push his Twilight co-star and rumoured real-life love, Kristen Stewart, down to seventh place with $698 million.

Although critics bashed Sam Worthington’s 3-D Clash of the Titans re-make, audiences still paid up $494 million in tickets to see the film, earning the Aussie eighth spot on the list.

The youngest actor to make the list was Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith, with his film Karate Kid earning $359million at the box office and helping him secure ninth place on the list.

When compiling its list, Forbes ranked films by gross ticket sales and did not include animated films. Actors were credited with the entire box office, even if they were not the headline star.
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