Peter Jackson, The Rock, Kanye West: Meet the world’s highest paid entertainers

It’s that time of the year again when Forbes number crunches its way to reveal its list of Highest-Paid Entertainers in 2021 — who happen to all be men. Altogether, the 25 entertainers mentioned on the list earned a combined $4.4 billion before taxes and fees last year, the vast majority of whom did it without creating anything new. So, without further ado, here’s a look at the top 10 who made the cut and their earnings:

Bob Dylan ($130 million): The 80-year-old Nobel laureate was one of the first high profile celebrities to sell his recording music and his future recording to Sony for $150 million. This was nearly a year after he earned a cool $400 million by selling his publishing catalogue to Universal.

Ryan Tedder ($160 million): One of the nicest celebs in showbiz — who also has a weak spot for Dubai’s very own Ravi’s — has worked with all the big names in the business. Think Adele, Beyonce and Ed Sheeran. When not writing for the biggies or stepping up as front man to his band, OneRepublic, he also sold a portion of the catalogue to investment firm KKR in January.

Tyler Perry ($165 million): Love or hate his Madea franchise, but we can’t deny that Tyler Perry is much an astute businessman as he is an actor. Aside from snapping up a multi-year production deal with BET last year, his 330-acre production studio in Atlanta is a top draw for all the big Hollywood players.

Paul Simon ($200 million): Taking a page out of Bruce Springsteen’s book, the folk rock musician sold hundreds of his song compositions, including ‘Mrs Robinson’ and ‘The Sound of Silence’ to Sony Music Publishing for some $250 million in March.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone ($210 million): Who? You may be excused for not recognising the creators of ‘South Park ‘and its offshoots. According to Forbes, they ‘oversee a cottage industry that now nets more than $80 million a year’ and in August, the duo signed a six-year $900 million deal with Paramount+.

Kanye West ($235 million): If we look past the messy divorce that West is embroiled in with Kim Kardashian, we can acknowledge that the rapper-producer has an astute business mind that has seen him nab a multi-year deal to design Yeezy sneakers for Adidas.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson ($270 million): Despite two blockbusters to his name in 2021, namely Disney’s ‘Jungle Cruise’ and the Netflix caper ‘Red Notice’, The Rock raked in the moolah largely from his beverage brand Teremana, which he launched in 2020 and doubled the sales by December 2021.

Jay-Z ($340 million): Hip-hop’s first billionaire and husband of Beyonce entered 2021 with two lucrative deals selling 50 per cent of his champagne brand to LVMH, along with a majority stake of Tidal to Square. In the span of mere weeks, Jay-Z’s net worth has jumped 40 per cent up to $1.4 billion.

Bruce Springsteen ($435 million): The Boss sold his recorded music catalogue and his body of work as a songwriter to his longtime label home Sony Music Group in December for a deal estimated at $500 million. The deal gave Sony ownership of Springsteen’s complete collection of classic songs such as ‘Born to Run’, ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘Blinded by the Light’ across 20 studio albums and live recordings.

Peter Jackson ($580 million): It may come as a surprise to many that it isn’t a Hollywood leading man taking the top spot on the list but a filmmaker. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson came in at number one riding the coattails of the earnings he pocketed by selling part of his visual effects firm Weta Digital to Unity Software for $1.6 billion in November, ‘making him only the third person in history to become a billionaire (after Steven Spielberg and George Lucas) by making movies,’ according to Forbes.