Beyoncé Knowles tops the FORBES Celebrity 100 list
Queen B played 95 shows, bringing in an average $2.4 million per stop, according to Pollstar. She also dropped her most innovative album. Titled simply Beyoncé, the album hit iTunes with barely any publicity and was billed as a “visual album” becausejay there was already a music video for each of the 14 songs. The single “Drunk in Love” has gone platinum, selling more than 1 million copies.
But Beyoncé doesn’t stop with music — she’s built a small business empire. She earns millions endorsing companies like H&M and Pepsi. She has a line of fragrances with names like Heat, Rise and Pulse, and then there’s her clothing company House of Dereon, which features jeans, shoes and accessories. All together we estimate that Beyoncé earned $115 million between June 1, 2013 and June 1, 2014.
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The singer is embarking on another big year highlighted by her first world tour with her husband, Jay Z. Their On The Run tour, which kicked off June 25 in Miami, will be short (only 20 dates are set) but lucrative for the pair, who can claim the crown as the most powerful celebrity couple in the world.
Jay Z also places high on the Celebrity 100 this year, in sixth place with an estimated $60 million in earnings. That comes from a variety of sources, including his latest album, Magna Carta … Holy Grail; dozens of live shows; his growing Roc Nation empire and business ventures ranging from his 40/40 nightclub chain to his D’Ussé cognac.
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FORBES’ annual Celebrity 100 list ranks the top stars from the worlds of movies, TV, music, sports, books and modelling based on money and fame.
We estimate earnings by talking to lawyers, producers, agents and other in-the-know folks to figure out how much over 200 celebrities earned from entertainment-related business in the past year. That includes things like music sales, upfront pay on movies and endorsement work. Our time frame for earnings this year is June 1, 2013 to June 1 2014. We don’t deduct for things like taxes, agent fees or the other expenses associated with being a celebrity.
We measure fame in a variety of ways. We count how many times each celebrity was mentioned in print, on TV and radio. We factor in a score from StarCount for social media power over 11 platforms including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. This year we’ve also added an impact score, similar to the one we use for our Power Women list. Based on reporting by our editorial staff, the number measures the impact each celebrity has on the entertainment industry and our culture overall. We put all of those numbers into an algorithm to come up with our final list. Justin Bieber had the highest ranking for social networking power but because of his low impact this year, he only ranked 33rd on our list, down from ninth last year.
In second place on our list is LeBron James. We estimate that the basketball player earned $72 million last year. James recently announced that he’s opting out of his contract with the Miami Heat to become a free agent. That could mean an even richer payday for James, who earns big endorsing companies like Coke and McDonald’s — or not if he decides to sacrifice salary to build a stronger roster around him.
In third place is Dr. Dre, who earned more in the past 12 months than anyone in the history of the Celebrity 100. We peg Dre’s earnings at $620 million thanks to Apple’s purchase of his Beats by Dre for $3 billion. The entrepreneur continues to be influential in the music business, mentoring Kendrick Lamar, who earned seven Grammy Award nominations this year.
Last year’s No. 1 celebrity, Oprah Winfrey, falls to fourth place this year with an estimated $82 million in earnings. The talk show host’s eponymous cable network, OWN, is finally turning around (it became cash-flow positive in 2013) and Winfrey helped make Lee Daniel’s The Butler a hit. But the three celebrities ranked above her just have more influence and power at this moment.
Rounding out the top five is another talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, who we estimate earned $70 million in the last 12 months. The new queen of daytime TV broke the Internet this year when she posted what has become the most famous “selfie” of all time. Aside from the ratings success of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the 56-year-old CoverGirl is beefing up her producing roster. Her production company is working on pilots for the CW and NBC, and cable network HGTV will air a DeGeneres-produced design competition series next year.
Here are the top 10:
No. 1: Beyonce
The biggest year of Queen B’s career comes courtesy of a massive tour. The superstar singer played 95 shows, bringing in an average $2.4 million per city, according to Pollstar. She also dropped her most innovative album. Titled simply “Beyoncé,” the record hit iTunes in December with barely any publicity; the single “Drunk in Love” has already sold more than 1 million copies.
No. 2: LeBron James
Back-to-back championships and four MVP awards have made LeBron James the king of the NBA. James is the NBA’s biggest endorsement star, thanks to deals with Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Upper Deck and others. Sales of his signature Nike shoes were tops among active players at $300 million in the U.S. during 2013, according to research firm SportsOneSource, and his jersey was the NBA’s best-seller. James’ earnings also got a boost from the sale of Beats to Apple for $3 billion. James owned a small piece of the business and helped make the brand a must-have accessory by outfitting the 2008 U.S. Olympic basketball team in Beijing in the high-priced headphones.
No. 3: Dr. Dre
It was a year of superlatives for the legendary producer, thanks to Apple’s $3 billion purchase of Beats, announced in May. His spoils boosted his annual income to an astronomical $620 million — not only the best year of his career and tops among the names on this year’s Celeb 100, but the highest yearly earnings total of any entertainer ever evaluated by FORBES.
No. 4: Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey spent the first half of 2014 on red carpets worldwide thanks to a host of nominations for her role in the acclaimed historical drama “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”. While she appears to have reversed the fortunes of her once-struggling network OWN, which became cash-flow positive in 2013, the bulk of her entertainment earnings still come from both her long-running talk show (off the air but in syndication) and the successful spin-off stars she helped create, including Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray and Dr. Oz. She also makes millions annually from her O Magazine and Sirius XM Oprah Radio show.
No. 5: Ellen DeGeneres
Daytime’s most likable TV personality — at least according to industry-standard Q scores — keeps dancing her way up our list. She managed to set two records within 24 hours this year: first, the now-famous ‘selfie’ photo she took with a handful of A-list celebs as she hosted the Oscars became the most re-tweeted Twitter post in history — a record previously held by President Obama. The live post-Oscars episode of her popular syndicated talk show the following day became the most-watched in the program’s 11 years on air. Aside from the ratings success of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” the 56-year-old CoverGirl is beefing up her producing roster. Her production company is working on pilots for the CW and NBC, and cable network HGTV will air a DeGeneres-produced design competition series next year.
No. 6: Jay-Z
The mogul’s total is his highest since 2010, bolstered by a diverse list of sources. There’s his growing Roc Nation empire; 68 concerts in our scoring period; business ventures ranging from his 40/40 clubs to his D’Ussé cognac; and his latest album, which was certified platinum before it was released due to an agreement with Samsung to buy 1 million copies.
No. 7: Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather is the first athlete besides Tiger Woods to earn $100 million in Forbes’ annual tally of the highest-paid athletes. His September 2013 fight against Canelo Alvarez set records for highest PPV gross ($150 million), live gate ($20 million) and total revenue (roughly $200 million). The Canelo fight marked the second bout in the blockbuster 30-month, six-fight deal he signed with Showtime in 2013. Mayweather earned a guaranteed $32 million for his May fight with Marcos Maidana where the PPV buys are expected to finish between 900,000 and one million when they are all counted, compared to 2.2 million for Mayweather-Alvarez. Mayweather pocketed $105 million for the two bouts thanks to his role as both pugilist and promoter.
No. 8: Rihanna
Rihanna may be the perfect embodiment of the modern pop star. The 26-year-old Barbados native churns out radio hits like “We Found Love” and “Diamonds” and collaborates with some of the biggest names in the business like Jay-Z and Eminem. But she also uses social media better than almost anyone. Her Twitter and Instagram feeds allow her to connect with her fans in a way that feels honest and unfiltered and they love her for it. Rihanna is the second most-powerful social media user on our list after Justin Bieber.
No. 9: Katy Perry
Even with a fairly modest touring schedule this year (Perry only played 20 public gigs during out time frame), the pop star is still one of the biggest earners in her field. Perry is unafraid of the shill. She gets paid to endorse brands like CoverGirl and Pop Chips and she has her own fragrance with Coty brands called Killer Queen. Perry also earns big playing private events. What rich kid wouldn’t love Perry to play her Sweet 16?
No. 10: Robert Downey Jr.
Marvel has been accused of being stingy when it comes to paying the stars of its blockbuster superhero movies. But the studio (owned by Disney) is plenty generous when it comes to Downey. As Iron Man, he’s been the driving force behind four of Marvel’s biggest hits, including “The Avengers” which is the third highest-grossing movie of all time. He played hard to get with the upcoming “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and was rewarded with a big pay hike. Most of Downey’s money this year comes from the backend of “Iron Man 3” which was the highest-grossing movie of 2013 with $1.2 billion in box office revenue.
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