We've long suspected it but now it's official; Matt Damon is the Lidl of Hollywood actors – although that's because he's the best value and not because he smells a bit Eastern European and is staffed by clueless mouth-breathers.
According to the Ultimate Star Payback study by Forbes, Matt Damon is the best possible investment around when it comes to casting actors for your movies. For every one dollar of salary that Matt Damon earns as an actor, he makes $29 at the box office – offering twice the value of Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Will Smith. This study – and the Matt Damon-centric results – make a couple of points startlingly clear. 1) Matt Damon must have the most inept agent in the world and 2) this new-found bargaining power means Matt Damon can push ahead with projects that are deeply personal to him, like the socially aware co-joined twin comedy sequel Stuck On You 2: Putting Da Fun In Darfur.
Although he may not have the crazy religious ideals of Tom Cruise, the terrifying haircut of Tom Hanks or the hilarious personal life of Eddie Murphy, Matt Damon has quietly been climbing the Hollywood ladder under the radar, pausing only to have a baby or raid a crack house. And it's worked – despite people still seeing him as the ugly one out of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck or PR Exec Number Two from Jersey Girl, Matt Damon is currently top of the box office for the second time this summer, plus he's the star of the film that won Best Picture at the Oscars this year and he has a footprint outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood alongside Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne and Steven Seagal.
And it's this stealthy success that has made Matt Damon the best value actor in Hollywood, if Forbes' Ultimate Star Payback report is to be believed. For every $1 that Matt Damon gets as salary from a movie lately, he's been making the movie $29 at the box office. Compare this with Jim Carrey, who only pulls in $8 for every $1 of his salary, and the woeful $5 per $1 that Russell Crowe makes, and you can see why everyone's getting their knickers in a twist so much. Forbes reports:
Damon earned the top spot mainly through his work playing an amnesiac spy in the Bourne trilogy. In 2004 Universal Studios made The Bourne Supremacy for $75 million–downright cheap for a summer action flick–and grossed $290 million in worldwide box office, plus another $165 million in video sales and rentals. Damon's total compensation for that film was just $26 million, a bargain for Universal. The latest instalment, The Bourne Ultimatum, opened in theaters this past weekend with $70.2 million in box office receipts in the U.S., the biggest August opening weekend ever.
Even though he's been named as the best value actor in Hollywood, Matt Damon would be wise not to get cocky and demand that the fourth Bourne film mainly involves him eating grapes on a chaise lounge. For one thing, we're still waiting to hear a single person look forward to a Matt Damon film because it's got Matt Damon in it, and also the Ultimate Star Payback study is slightly tarnished by the fact that Jennifer Aniston has been named as the best value female movie star. And, let's be honest, you'd rather saw through your own ribcage than watch a Jennifer Aniston film, right?
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