ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

Tom Cruise is Hollywood's highest paid actor

Tom Cruise is Hollywood's highest paid actor

Tom Cruise is Hollywood's highest paid actor
03 July 2012

Turning 50 just days after your younger wife files for divorce doesn't strike most of us as a great place to be.

But if you're Tom Cruise then things could be a whole load worse. In fact, career-wise things couldn't be much better. Riding off the recent success of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the Cruiser has just been revealed as the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.

The annual Forbes list has placed him way ahead of his rivals with an estimated $75 million in the bank between May 2011 and May 2012. It's especially rather remarkable when you consider where he was at just two years ago. With his public image getting crazier and crazier, his box office presence was in the gutter after Mission: Impossible III, Lions for Lambs, Valkyrie and Knight and Day all under-performed.

But the $700 million behemoth that was MI4 and the massive chunk of the profits that Cruise earned has catapulted him to the top of the A-List all over again. Up next he's taking on the role of Jack Reacher and bothering aliens again in Oblivion.

The full list is as follows:

1. Tom Cruise $75 million

2=. Leonardo DiCaprio $37 million

2=. Adam Sandler $37 million

4. Dwayne Johnson $36 million

5. Ben Stiller $33 million

6=. Sacha Baron Cohen $30 million

6=. Johnny Depp $30 million

6=. Will Smith $30 million

9. Mark Wahlberg $27 million

10. Taylor Lautner $26.5 million

(Images: All Star)