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George Clooney Named Top Earning Actor Of 2018

Forbes released their list of the 10 highest paid actors of the year, with George Clooney taking the top spot in a rather ironic fashion. Mark Wahlberg topped the list in 2017 with $68 million, just edging out Dwayne Johnson's $65 million. This year, however, Wahlberg was nowhere to be found, at least in the top 10, while Johnson managed to nearly double is pre-tax income from last year. Forbes has put out a list of the highest-earning celebrities, dubbed the Celebrity 100, since 1999, which breaks down how much each celebrity earned, and where it came from. These celebrities can run the gamut from actors to athletes, and this year the overall top earner was in fact an athlete, boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned $275 million for his mega-fight with controversial UFC star Conor McGregor. The only two actors in the overall top 10 were Clooney (#2) and Johnson (#5), along with Kylie Jenner (#3), Judge Judy Sheindlin (#4), U2 (#6), Coldplay (#7), soccer star Lionel Messi (#8), Ed Sheeran (#9) and another soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo (#10). Clooney wasn't even on the top 10 last year, since he hasn't starred in a movie since 2016's Money Monster with Julia Roberts, but he earned a staggering $239 million in pre-tax earnings between June 1, 2017 and June 1, 2018, according to Forbes. The bulk of those earnings came from the sale of his Casamigos Tequila company to British liquor giant Diageo, for $700 million up front, with upwards of $300 million to be paid out over the next decade. Clooney has an equal stake in the company with its two co-founders, Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman, with Clooney pocketing $233 million from the sale, plus an additional $6 million from "endorsements and older movies."