Beyoncé Knowles Tops The FORBES Celebrity 100 List
Who runs the world? In entertainment, it’s Beyoncé. The singer has climbed to the No. 1 spot on the Forbes Celebrity 100 after an amazing year featuring a massive tour.
Beyonce
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.
Dr Dre
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.
Ellen DeGeneres
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.
Floyd Mayweather
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
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.
Katy Perry
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.LeBron James
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 TWTR +0.1%, 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.
Oprah Winfrey
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.
Rihanna
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.
Robert Downey Jr
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.
FULL LIST OF 100 CELEBRITIES BY FORBES MAGAZINE
Rank Name Age Earnings Category
#1 Beyonce Knowles 32 $115 M Musicians
#2 LeBron James 29 $72 M Athletes
#3 Dr. Dre 49 $620 M Musicians
#4 Oprah Winfrey 60 $82 M Personalities
#5 Ellen DeGeneres 56 $70 M Personalities
#6 Jay-Z 44 $60 M Musicians
#7 Floyd Mayweather 37 $105 M Athletes
#8 Rihanna 26 $48 M Musicians
#9 Katy Perry 29 $40 M Musicians
#10 Robert Downey Jr 49 $75 M Actors
#11 Steven Spielberg 67 $100 M Directors/Producers
#12 Jennifer Lawrence 23 $34 M Actresses
#13 Bon Jovi – $82 M Musicians
#13 Bruno Mars 28 $60 M Musicians
#15 Kobe Bryant 35 $62 M Athletes
#16 Roger Federer 32 $55 M Athletes
#17 Miley Cyrus 20 $36 M Musicians
#18 Taylor Swift 24 $64 M Musicians
#19 Lady Gaga 28 $33 M Musicians
#20 Kanye West 37 $30 M Musicians
#21 Calvin Harris 30 $66 M Musicians
#21 Tiger Woods 38 $61 M Athletes
#23 Dwayne Johnson 42 $52 M Actors
#24 Rafael Nadal 28 $45 M Athletes
#25 Bruce Springsteen 64 $81 M Musicians
#26 The Eagles – $100 M Musicians
#26 Justin Timberlake 33 $57 M Musicians
#28 One Direction – $75 M Musicians
#29 Paul McCartney 72 $71 M Musicians
#30 Cristiano Ronaldo 29 $80 M Athletes
#31 Sean “Diddy” Combs 44 $60 M Musicians
#31 Ryan Seacrest 39 $65 M Personalities
#33 Justin Bieber 20 $80 M Musicians
#33 Kevin Durant 25 $32 M Athletes
#33 Jennifer Lopez 44 $37 M Musicians
#36 Sandra Bullock 49 $51 M Actresses
#37 James Patterson 67 $90 M Authors
#38 Pharrell Williams 41 $22 M Musicians
#39 Glenn Beck 50 $90 M Personalities
#39 Peyton Manning 38 $27 M Athletes
#41 Mark Burnett 53 $86 M Directors/Producers
#42 Simon Cowell 54 $95 M Personalities
#43 Novak Djokovic 27 $33 M Athletes
#44 Phil Mickelson 44 $54 M Athletes
#45 Jimmy Fallon 39 $12 M Personalities
#45 Lionel Messi 27 $65 M Athletes
#47 Avicii 24 $28 M Musicians
#48 Bradley Cooper 39 $46 M Actors
#48 Peter Jackson 52 $50 M Directors/Producers
#50 Michael Bay 49 $66 M Directors/Producers
#51 Toby Keith 52 $65 M Musicians
#52 Leonardo DiCaprio 39 $39 M Actors
#52 Matthew McConaughey 44 $21 M Actors
#54 Sofia Vergara 41 $37 M Television actresses
#55 Dwyane Wade 32 $30 M Athletes
#56 Gisele Bundchen 33 $47 M Models
#56 Tyler Perry 44 $70 M Directors/Producers
#58 Gordon Ramsay 47 $47 M Personalities
#59 Rush Limbaugh 63 $66 M Personalities
#60 Jon Stewart 51 $16 M Personalities
#60 Mark Wahlberg 43 $32 M Actors
#62 Howard Stern 60 $95 M Personalities
#63 Hugh Jackman 45 $18 M Actors
#63 Ashton Kutcher 36 $26 M Television actors
#63 Maria Sharapova 27 $24 M Athletes
#66 Vin Diesel 46 $25 M Actors
#67 Ben Affleck 41 $35 M Actors
#68 Joss Whedon 50 $32 M Directors/Producers
#69 Serena Williams 32 $22 M Athletes
#70 Kenny Chesney 46 $44 M Musicians
#71 J.J. Abrams 48 $28 M Directors/Producers
#72 Neil Patrick Harris 41 $18 M Television actors
#73 Angelina Jolie 39 $18 M Actresses
#74 Kevin Spacey 54 $16 M Television actors
#75 Will Smith 45 $32 M Actors
#76 Scarlett Johansson 29 $17 M Actresses
#77 Jennifer Aniston 45 $31 M Actresses
#78 Dan Brown 50 $28 M Authors
#79 John Green 36 $9 M Authors
#80 Kim Kardashian 33 $28 M Personalities
#81 Amy Adams 39 $13 M Actresses
#82 Stephen King 66 $17 M Authors
#83 Dr. Phil McGraw 63 $77 M Personalities
#84 J.K. Rowling 48 $14 M Authors
#85 Li Na 32 $24 M Athletes
#86 Sean Hannity 52 $30 M Personalities
#86 Seth MacFarlane 40 $35 M Directors/Producers
#88 Bryan Cranston 58 $7 M Television actors
#89 Jon Hamm 43 $10 M Television actors
#89 Gwyneth Paltrow 41 $19 M Actresses
#91 Kate Moss 40 $7 M Models
#92 Meryl Streep 65 $10 M Actresses
#93 Kerry Washington 37 $6 M Television actresses
#94 Kate Upton 22 $7 M Models
#95 Veronica Roth 25 $17 M Authors
#96 Zooey Deschanel 34 $6 M Television actresses
#97 Cameron Diaz 41 $18 M Actresses
#97 Lena Dunham 28 $3.5 M Television actresses
#99 Kaley Cuoco 28 $11 M Television actresses
#100 Natalie Portman 33 $13 M Actresses
VIA FORBES MAGAZINE