LOS ANGELES • American boxer Floyd Mayweather was named the world's highest-paid entertainer on Monday on a list that saw actor George Clooney take the No. 2 spot with the highest annual pay of his career.
Reality TV star Kylie Jenner, 20, came in third on the annual Forbes Celebrity 100 list, largely thanks to her booming cosmetics line that Forbes said put her on track to become the youngest self-made billionaire in the United States.
Forbes compiled its 2018 list estimating pre-tax earnings from June last year to last month, before deducting fees for managers, based on data from Nielsen, touring trade publication Pollstar, movie database IMDb and interviews with industry experts and celebrities themselves.
Mayweather pulled in US$285 million (S$388 million) in the period, largely thanks to his win in a comeback fight with mixed-martial arts champion Conor McGregor last August.
Oscar-winning star Clooney earned an estimated US$239 million after selling the Casamigos tequila company he co-founded to British spirits company Diageo in June last year.
Forbes said the sale gave the actor the best annual earnings of his 35-year career in film and television.
Forbes said entertainers on its Celebrity 100 list this year earned a combined US$6.3 billion before tax, up 22 per cent from last year's list. Many of the highest earners came from celebrities leveraging on their brands through side ventures and their social media presence.
"There's never been a more lucrative time to be famous than now, with 11 superstars earning US$100 million or more over the past year," said Mr Zack O'Malley Greenburg, senior entertainment editor at Forbes, in a statement.
"Entertainers have found all sorts of new ways to monetise their audiences, especially with the help of social media," he added.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson almost doubled his earnings from the previous year to land in fifth place, with estimated earnings of US$124 million.
Forbes said the earnings of the Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017) and Fast & Furious star are the largest acting-related earnings it has recorded in 20 years.
The top earner on last year's list, musician Sean Diddy Combs, dropped to No. 32. His earnings on the 2017 list were inflated by a tour and the sale of part of his Sean John clothing line, Forbes said.
Musicians and athletes fared well, with Irish band U2, British band Coldplay and British singer Ed Sheeran appearing in the top 10. Soccer players Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo also earned more than US$100 million, Forbes said.
REUTERS
