Forbes highest-paid celebrities 2022

Updated on July 25, 2022 11:22 AM by Andrew Koschiev

Last December, Bruce Springsteen sold the publishing and masters rights to all his songwriting and recorded music – this includes five gold singles and eleven multi-platinum albums for almost 500 million.

Sony Music, a parent company of Springsteen's longtime label, Columbia Records, bought all his music. This gave a 20-time Grammy award winner a rank 2 in this list.

Music libraries are not among the only pieces of creative content selling more than a song.

During the last two years, the streaming giants have spent around $3.7 billion to own the rights of TV hits like Law & Orders and Friends, helping their creators land on this list.

Peter Jackson - $580 million

The director of the Lord of Rings sold some parts of his visual effects firm named Weta Digital for $1.6 billion to Unity Software in November.

It made him the third person in entertainment history who became a billionaire simply by making movies. The first two such billionaires were Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

Bruce Springsteen - $435 million

The Boss unloaded his complete work to Sony Music Group, which is his longtime label home. He did this in December last year. The deal was estimated to be about $500 million.

There were fifty years of recordings, songwriting credits, and iconic songs from 20 studio albums, live recordings, and multiple box sets.

Jay-Z - $340 million

The first billionaire in the hip-hop industry showed his business skills in 2021 when Jay-Z cashed out his stakes in the music platform Tidal and the Amanda de Brignac champagne brand.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson - $270 million

Dwayne Johnson is one of the few actors who made the last year. The Rock only earned a quarter of his total earnings from his roles in movies such as Red Notice and Jungle Cruise. Most of his Jumanji-sized paychecks are earned from Dwayne's buzzy tequila brand, Teremana.

Kanye West - $235 million

Right now, the billionaire producer earns most of his earnings from a multi-year deal that designs Yeezy sneakers for sports brand Adidas. His first Yeezy designs were for the Gap – a jacket and a hoodie came in stores and sold like hot cakes.

However, according to the reports, the 52-year-old brand demands more and feels frustrated with the rapper's slow rollout.

The Parker and Matt Stone - $210 million

Hilarious. Shocking. And cheap to make. The South Park creators and its offshoots look after a cottage industry that now breeds over $80 million every year. Not only this, the duo signed a six-year deal worth $900 with Paramount+ last August.

Paul Simon - $200 million

The folk rock musician sold hundreds of his beautiful and popular song compositions, including 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy), The Sound of Silence, and Mrs. Robinson, to Sony Music Publishing for around $ 250 million in March this year.

Tyler Perry - $165 million

The billionaire actor and do-it-all creator are returning with the Madea franchise, which made him popular. All the things he built around the franchise are from where he gets a significant part of his earnings. A multi-year production deal he had with BET to the 330-acre production studio in Atlanta.

Ryan Tedder – $160 million

Apart from more than 500 songs Ryan has composed for his own band, the OneRepublic frontman has also written hit songs for others like Adele, Beyonce, and Ed Sheeran. In January this year, Ryan sold some of his catalogs to KKR, an investment firm.

Bob Dylan - $130 million

Bob, 80, and a Nobel laureate, shifted his earlier recorded music and some of his future recordings to popular Sony for a value of $150 million. This deal is in the footstep of an earlier deal of $400 million with Universal in 2020, where he sold his publishing catalog.

Red Hot Chill Peppers - $116 million

Hipgnosis, a London music investment fund, grabbed up the California rockers catalog, including hit songs like Californication, in the month of May this year.

The Big Little Lies actor sold Hello Sunshine, a female-focused production company. The star sold it to a private equity company Blackstone for a huge amount of $900 million in August last year, but she still has a stake in the production company. Reese was also part of The Morning Show Season, where she earned $20 million.

Chuck Lorre - $100 million

Lorre is the go-to star at Warner Bros. TV and still collects millions every year from the syndication of grand hits like The Big Band Theory and Two And a Half. However, he isn't sitting free. He has four sitcoms right now airing with a Netflix series called Kominsky Method.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs - $90 million

In 1999, Diddy shared he wasn't fooling around, he was building assets, and he wasn't joking. He is still the owner of the brands he was working on back then, such as Bad Boy Records and recently re-acquired Sean Jean fashion label. But, currently, a major part of what he earns is from his liquor brand – Ciroc vodka.

Dick Wolf - $86 million

Even after 32 years of Law & Order franchise attracts crime junkies with a mixture of old syndicated shows like Special Victims Unit and newer ones like Organized Crime – while earning money from these as he has a profit-share deal in place with Universal Television which many creators would kill for.

Stern is a self-claimed king of all media, shifted from radio to SiriusXM satellite fifteen years ago. In the year 2020, a one-time radio shock-jock signed a deal for a five-year term with SiriusXM for $500 million.

Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane

Friends forever – The showrunners for all-time favorite 90s sitcom reemerged for a moment when they returned with a reunion show with the cast on HBO Max. the trio still makes money with a deal on the show worth $425 million.

The Bridgerton producer betted on herself while signing with Netflix in the year 2017. She vowed with the executives on the streaming platform with the platform's most popular pandemic release. The actor re-upped with Netflix and still receives huge residuals from the ABC network for the show Grey's Anatomy.

Neil Young - $80 million

After a year when Young sold his music rights to Hipgonosis, an investment firm. Young demanded Spotify to choose between him and Joe Rogan, who was blamed for spreading misinformation about Covid. The streaming service deleted his music.

Greg Berlanti - $75 million

The showrunner is well known for some of the best shows like Riverdale. Yet, most of his income is from a six-year production deal with Netflix for shows such as You, a psychological thriller.