false lists

Channing Tatum Is Worth Every Penny

Paid just fine.
Paid just fine. Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images

Forbes’s annual list of Hollywood’s most overpaid actors compares top actors’ paychecks to the amount of money brought in by the films in which those actors appear in a leading role. This makes it a list based on seemingly irrefutable evidence, at least within its own parameters. However, it is wrong on one point.

To give you a better sense of the method used to determine the list, here is Forbes on its process:

To compile our rundown, we looked at the last three films each actor starred in before June 2015, save animated films, movies where the actor appeared in an insignificant role, or movies that were released on fewer than 2,000 screens.

We then deducted the estimated production budget from the global box office for each film according to Box Office Mojo to come up with a limited definition of each movie’s operating income. We took the total operating income from the star’s three most recent significant films then divided by the star’s estimated pay for those films to come up with a final return on investment number.

The result finds Johnny Depp as the year’s most overpaid actor, returning only $1.20 for every $1 he was paid. Denzel Washington follows not-so-closely behind him with $6.50 per $1. Then we have Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Will Smith, Christian Bale, and — hold on … what’s this?

7. Channing Tatum

Returns $10.80 for every $1 paid.

Excuse me?

7. Channing Tatum

Come again?

Channing Tatum

Hmm. This is false.

Disregarding for a moment the fact that all top Hollywood actors are overpaid in a way for which we should feel collectively ashamed, Channing Tatum is a nice man with a nice body and I think he is paid just fine. He dances real good with no clothes and brings joy to women.

All right?

Is that not enough?

If that, for you, is not enough, consider this: In a Reddit AMA earlier this year he said, “Doing SNL was by far the most terrifying thing that I’ve ever done, because there is a lot of reading involved, and I don’t read that well out loud,” which is lovable. Is that not lovable enough for you to say Channing Tatum earns his paycheck, whatever the paycheck is, as if you’re some sort of paycheck expert? Okay, well in the same Reddit AMA, in response to a question about what he would want if he were stranded on a desert island, he said this:

How about a magical seashell that’s always filled with bourbon. And I would like [a] magical palm tree that had a lot of shade with instead of coconuts there’s just peanut butter jelly sandwiches with cheetos underneath. And my wife that is always happy and possibly naked.

Also look at this:

Plus — and I may be speaking out of turn here, I don’t often concern myself with Hollywood film finances — it seems to me like $10.80 for every $1 is not that bad. I don’t know. How much money do you want? Don’t be greedy.

Channing Tatum — worth every penny.