George Clooney named Forbes' highest-paid actor for 2018

Aug. 23 (UPI) -- George Clooney has been deemed the world's highest paid actor by Forbes for 2018, ahead of other Hollywood stars such as Dwayne Johnson and Robert Downey Jr.

Clooney earned $239 million in pretax earnings from June 2017 to June 2018 due to his lucrative business venture with tequila company Casamigos which was sold to British liquor conglomerate Diageo for $700 million last June. The deal also included the potential to earn an additional $300 million over the next decade.

Clooney walked away with an estimated $233 million from Casamigos with his remaining earnings coming from endorsement deals and older films.

In second place is Johnson with $124 million which the highest amount earned for front-of-camera roles in Forbes history the publication said. The action star earned the large amount from his upfront paychecks on films and from earning a cut of the profits made on projects such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Downey comes in third with $81 million earned from his role as Iron Man in Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War.

Downey's Marvel co-star Chris Hemsworth follows behind in fourth place with $64.5 million for his turn as Thor in Thor: Ragnarok and in Avengers: Infinity War. In fifth place is Jackie Chan, earning $45.5 million as China's biggest movie star.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 10 is Will Smith ($42 million), Bollywood star Akshay Kumar ($40.5 million), Adam Sandler ($39.5 million), Bollywood star Salman Khan ($38.5 million) and Chris Evans ($34 million).

Together, the top ten highest-paid actors earned $748.5 million, compared to the $186 million earned by the top ten highest-paid actresses. Scarlett Johansson recently topped the list of highest-paid actresses with $40.5 million.

Mark Wahlberg was named the highest-paid actor in 2017 with $68 million.