Fair or not, men are bigger earners both in front of and behind the camera. In fact, the male entertainers (excluding athletes) on Forbes' annual listing of the World's Most Powerful Celebrities earned on average nearly twice as much as the list's women. Moreover, the 25 top-earning men on the list alone raked in $1.9 billion collectively over the course of a year, compared with their counterparts' $671 million.
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$332 million The sale of DreamWorks SKG's live-action business to Paramount earned the director mega-bucks. More recently, the top-earning entertainer scored with Disturbia, a thriller that garnered $22 million in its opening weekend. Next, he'll set out to find the next best filmmaker on his Fox reality TV series On the Lot, co-executive produced by Mark Burnett. Following that, he'll serve up a slew of silver screen crowd pleasers: the much-anticipated Transformers film as well as the fourth installments of the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises.
***2
$302 million The King of Talk is doing just that--all the way to the bank. In 2004, Sirius Satellite Radio agreed to shell out $100 million a year for his R-rated fare--and that doesn't factor in the slew of bonuses. The trade-off: fewer listeners. He no longer lures the daily audience of 12 million he once attracted on free radio.
***3
$235 million The director is still earning big bucks on residuals from his popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. In the works: a fourth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, which Lucas will co-write and executive produce.
***4
$100 million Off the air for nearly a decade, his 1990s sitcom is still bringing in big bucks in syndication. Next up, Seinfeld will grace the silver screen in Bee Movie, an animated flick from DreamWorks that he wrote, produced and stars in. Lest that weren't enough to keep the comedian busy, he still does stand-up periodically.
***5
$88 million Despite critical scorn, the film adaptation of his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code grossed nearly $800 million worldwide at the box office. The author's earlier work, Angels & Demons, is currently in development at Sony.
***6
$84 million If the $1 billion-plus global box office take for last summer's Pirates of the Caribbean was any indication, Bruckheimer is poised for a very lucrative spring. The series' third installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, is scheduled to hit theaters at the end of May. Also padding the producer's wallet: syndication fees from CSI, his hit forensics show, and its spinoffs.
***7
$70 million After 17 seasons on the air, the fate of his Law & Order franchise, which has spawned several spinoffs and a seemingly endless supply of reruns, is unclear. With a ratings dip plaguing both the original and its Criminal Intent spinoff (the franchise's third, Special Victims Unit, remains a hit and has already been picked up for another season), NBC argues that the two programs, at their present costs, are no longer viable.
***8
$67 million His high-profile marriage and couch-jumping ways may be prime tabloid fodder, but his recent career moves (or lack thereof) have given the press little to talk about. The star hasn't graced the silver screen since Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone publicly cut his movie company's ties to the star last summer. Cruise will stage his comeback later this year in the Robert Redford-directed drama Lions for Lambs, co-starring Redford and Meryl Streep.
***9
$56 million After dabbling in the reality TV realm--he's a judge of Britain's Any Dream Will Do--the music impresario is reportedly eager to refocus his efforts on his day job: composing hit musicals. Among the hopefuls: a Phantom of the Opera sequel, which he has already begun to pen.
***10
$55 million A few years shy of 60 and the Boss has little desire to slow down. Later this spring, he'll release a CD and DVD of his fall 2006 Seeger Sessions Band tour of Europe. Meanwhile, he's lent his voice to a host of soundtracks, including Adam Sandler's Reign Over Me and the upcoming Drew Barrymore picture Lucky You.
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