While she’s definitely an A-lister, it might surprise you to learn that Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock tops the list of actresses in Oscar-worthy movies in terms of her worth per second for those movies! According to a study commissioned by Onlinecasinos.co.uk, Bullock is worth almost $95,000 for every second she is on screen in recent Oscar-nominated films.
Among her many credits, Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2010 for her work in “The Blind Side.” Sir Ian McKellen comes in second place with a box office of just over 90,000 dollars for every second the English film legend graces the screen.
After these two A-list stars, the drop is quite significant, with Kate Winslet (3rd), Whoopi Goldberg (4th) and Dustin Hoffman (5th) rounding out the top five. But the study estimates their value at around $75,000 per second when they appear on screen in a nominated film.
At the opposite end of the scale, screen greats Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise are in 48th and 49th place respectively, raking in just over $26,000 in box office value per second, according to the survey’s metrics. Maybe they should talk to their agents!
When it comes to plenty of pay for just a little bit of work, it might surprise you to learn that Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins appeared on screen during “The Silence of the Lambs” for just 16 minutes! Despite this, Hopkins was reportedly offered $15 million for the sequel. Talk about working smart!
Top 50 Most Valuable Oscar-Worthy Actors
| Actor | Number of Oscar nominated/winning films | Average screen time share | Total screen time in seconds | Total worldwide box office (inf adjusted, US$) | Worldwide box office * screen time ratio | Value per second (US$) |
| Sandra Bullock | 2 | 61.63% | 7700 | $1,183,721,286.47 | $729,468,242.79 | $94,736.14 |
| Ian McKellen | 2 | 44.55% | 6758 | $1,374,576,990.01 | $612,374,049.05 | $90,614.69 |
| Kate Winslet | 7 | 36.42% | 20476 | $4,281,778,323.29 | $1,559,362,497.08 | $76,155.62 |
| Whoopi Goldberg | 2 | 31.13% | 5393 | $1,310,308,828.42 | $407,833,622.84 | $75,622.77 |
| Dustin Hoffman | 3 | 60.37% | 12696 | $1,551,902,802.28 | $936,935,451.83 | $73,797.69 |
| Tom Hanks | 6 | 59.45% | 28594 | $3,519,213,026.24 | $2,092,113,490.55 | $73,166.17 |
| Joaquin Phoenix | 4 | 62.76% | 20085 | $2,171,886,318.63 | $1,363,075,853.57 | $67,865.36 |
| Johnny Depp | 3 | 50.14% | 10485 | $1,329,208,431.66 | $666,465,107.63 | $63,563.67 |
| Matt Damon | 3 | 45.67% | 10915 | $1,285,893,375.40 | $587,310,367.66 | $53,807.64 |
| Julia Roberts | 4 | 54.51% | 16159 | $1,569,770,779.33 | $855,603,563.28 | $52,949.04 |
| Bradley Cooper | 3 | 56.98% | 13232 | $1,205,425,346.37 | $686,851,362.36 | $51,908.36 |
| Mary McDonnell | 2 | 37.44% | 6538 | $890,214,639.16 | $333,296,360.90 | $50,978.34 |
| Russell Crowe | 3 | 54.14% | 14317 | $1,302,405,914.75 | $705,079,148.72 | $49,247.69 |
| Ralph Fiennes | 2 | 34.78% | 7117 | $1,004,661,639.90 | $349,371,085.28 | $49,089.66 |
| Christoph Waltz | 2 | 33.25% | 6396 | $931,044,250.14 | $309,572,213.17 | $48,400.91 |
| Kevin Spacey | 2 | 37.41% | 5127 | $640,787,895.48 | $239,718,751.70 | $46,756.14 |
| Tommy Lee Jones | 4 | 25.74% | 8194 | $1,426,765,576.38 | $367,178,121.08 | $44,810.61 |
| Colin Firth | 2 | 71.91% | 9342 | $569,966,719.89 | $409,863,068.28 | $43,873.16 |
| Helena Bonham Carter | 2 | 33.77% | 4300 | $557,579,786.01 | $188,266,814.75 | $43,782.98 |
| Renee Zellweger | 4 | 53.04% | 14450 | $1,178,930,992.52 | $625,304,998.43 | $43,273.70 |
| Ed Harris | 4 | 28.16% | 8215 | $1,198,955,318.92 | $337,625,817.81 | $41,098.70 |
| Clint Eastwood | 2 | 50.79% | 8021 | $640,075,184.44 | $325,094,186.18 | $40,530.38 |
| Juliette Binoche | 2 | 34.50% | 5655 | $640,266,689.69 | $220,859,994.61 | $39,055.70 |
| Helen Hunt | 2 | 41.13% | 5801 | $543,822,190.25 | $223,646,875.74 | $38,553.16 |
| Geoffrey Rush | 4 | 26.93% | 7563 | $1,080,857,868.71 | $291,048,002.60 | $38,483.14 |
| Anne Hathaway | 2 | 35.97% | 5220 | $539,423,375.54 | $194,003,617.01 | $37,165.44 |
| Ryan gosling | 2 | 61.20% | 8570 | $500,593,576.57 | $306,338,239.18 | $35,745.42 |
| Leonardo DiCaprio | 6 | 56.43% | 32250 | $2,009,223,973.91 | $1,133,704,627.28 | $35,153.63 |
| Brad Pitt | 4 | 41.68% | 14982 | $1,249,204,732.85 | $520,699,762.77 | $34,755.02 |
| Will Smith | 2 | 81.06% | 13181 | $547,257,746.07 | $443,607,128.97 | $33,655.04 |
| Jane Fonda | 2 | 48.19% | 6007 | $417,655,608.28 | $201,247,354.85 | $33,502.14 |
| Jodie Foster | 3 | 47.06% | 9644 | $683,504,545.59 | $321,657,239.15 | $33,353.09 |
| Natalie Portman | 3 | 65.36% | 12247 | $619,587,232.73 | $404,962,215.31 | $33,066.24 |
| Emma Stone | 3 | 42.49% | 9443 | $715,232,349.84 | $303,902,225.45 | $32,182.80 |
| Jonas Hill | 2 | 25.52% | 4784 | $587,501,166.85 | $149,930,297.78 | $31,339.95 |
| Winona Ryder | 2 | 41.62% | 6157 | $460,110,476.79 | $191,474,974.92 | $31,098.75 |
| Alan Arkin | 2 | 10.59% | 1379 | $403,353,072.95 | $42,715,090.43 | $30,975.41 |
| Octavia Spencer | 3 | 20.00% | 4803 | $733,607,385.88 | $146,745,930.76 | $30,552.97 |
| John Malkovich | 2 | 21.67% | 3160 | $442,448,344.79 | $95,856,433.90 | $30,334.31 |
| Debra Winger | 3 | 39.52% | 9238 | $707,912,554.78 | $279,790,638.73 | $30,286.93 |
| Jamie Foxx | 2 | 59.50% | 9828 | $491,240,293.69 | $292,263,412.73 | $29,737.83 |
| Jack Nicholson | 7 | 41.36% | 23492 | $1,677,112,359.41 | $693,701,589.35 | $29,529.27 |
| Keira Knightley | 2 | 46.42% | 6923 | $435,791,011.20 | $202,272,397.85 | $29,217.45 |
| Sally Field | 2 | 25.39% | 3619 | $413,642,302.75 | $105,003,098.55 | $29,014.40 |
| Sigourney Weaver | 3 | 47.52% | 11112 | $655,979,796.99 | $311,743,465.52 | $28,054.67 |
| Mahershala Ali | 2 | 34.93% | 5234 | $418,633,762.48 | $146,228,773.23 | $27,938.24 |
| Melissa McCarthy | 2 | 47.26% | 6210 | $362,408,596.12 | $171,256,182.10 | $27,577.49 |
| Robert De Niro | 4 | 43.09% | 13024 | $825,675,159.84 | $355,762,784.50 | $27,315.94 |
| Tom Cruise | 3 | 49.17% | 12979 | $704,402,630.21 | $346,378,253.36 | $26,687.59 |
| Holly Hunter | 4 | 37.51% | 10903 | $757,086,821.05 | $283,983,266.57 | $26,046.34 |
Click here for a complete list of Most Valuable Actors
Study methodology:
Onlinecasinos.co.uk was curious to find out which Oscar nominated/winning actors of the last 40 years are the most valuable by analyzing the value per second on the screen. Please note that only current living actors with more than one nominated film were included in the final data.
First, Onlinecasinos.co.uk used idolnetworth.com and celebritynetworth.com to gather each actor’s estimated net worth. Second, they used screentimecentral.com to calculate the actor’s time spent on screen for all Oscar-nominated films.
The-numbers.com enabled researchers to obtain international box office data. The team only used films from 1980 to the present due to a lack of data for older films. In addition, researchers excluded some films from 2020 and 2021 due to insufficient box office data. All figures were adjusted for inflation using US CPI data.
For each actor, researchers calculated the sum of the worldwide box office earnings of the Oscar-nominated films they were in, plus the time in seconds they were on screen. In addition, they calculated the average proportion of time spent on the screen.
The team then multiplied the box office amount by the average screen time to get a share of the box office earnings. Please note that the final amount was converted using Google’s financial formula for other currencies. This value was then divided by the number of seconds the actor spent on screen to get one average value per second for each actor and reveals the most valuable actors.