Former Batman George Clooney Is This Year's Highest Paid Actor (And Not Why You Think)

It was recently revealed that the world's highest-paid actress Marvel's Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson; however the title of highest-paid actor goes to DC's former Batman, George Clooney - and it's not for the reason you'd expect!

As Forbes reveals in a new report, George Clooney netted $239 million dollars (pretax) between June 2017 and June 2018 - and it wasn't for acting. Clooney sold his company Casamigos Tequila for $1 billion to British liquor conglomerate Diageo, which came with a $233 million upfront payout for Clooney. The other $6M the actor earned came from endorsements and royalties from older movies.

Clooney has been under the radar for the last few years, as far as acting roles go. His last two roles were actually in the 2016 films Hail, Caesar! and Money Monster - neither of which were big successes. He was in Disney's 2015 film Tomorrowland, which was likewise an underperformer. Clooney's last directorial project, the racially-themed Suburbicon was a massive flop, earning just $5M worldwide, despite carrying a line of stars as bright as Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac. Some people have pointed to Clooney's outspoken political views as being a decisive factor in his decreased value at the box office, but that's debatable.

Clooney's life also changed drastically in the 2010s, as he married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin and started to use his celebrity more for humanitarian causes than movies. Those causes have included getting recognition for the Armenian Genocide, support for Syrian refugees, and more recently, gun control legislation. Clearly, Clooney has also been making some careful business investments in between his social justice work, and is doing quite handsomely in those business endeavors, if this "Highest Paid Actor" title is any indication.

Clooney's sale of Casamigos is a billion-dollar return on the initial investments of $600K a piece, which were made by Clooney and his partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman. Considering where Ben Affleck is right now (headed back into rehab), it's at least nice to see that Tequila has been a very positive influence in the life of at least one Batman actor (too soon?).

As for the Batman movie franchise: production on Warner Bros.' net Batman movie, Matt Reeves The Batman, is reportedly set to begin by summer of 2019. No word yet who will be wearing the cape and cowl in that film, or what kind of storyline it will have. We'll keep you posted.