Who runs the world? In entertainment, it’s Beyoncé. The singer has climbed to the No. 1 spot on the Forbes Celebrity 100 after an amazing year featuring a massive tour.
Queen B played 95 shows, bringing in an average $2.4 million per stop, according to Pollstar. She also dropped her most innovative album. Titled simply Beyoncé,
the album hit iTunes with barely any publicity and was billed as a
“visual album” becausejay there was already a music video for each of
the 14 songs. The single “Drunk in Love” has gone platinum, selling
more than 1 million copies.
The 2014 Celebrity 100
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massive tour. The superstar singer played 95 shows, bringing in an
average $2.4 million per city, according to Pollstar. She also dropped
her most innovative album. Titled simply "Beyoncé," the record hit
iTunes in December with barely any publicity; the single "Drunk in Love"
has already sold more than 1 million copies.
No. 1: Beyonce
The biggest year of Queen B's career comes courtesy of amassive tour. The superstar singer played 95 shows, bringing in an
average $2.4 million per city, according to Pollstar. She also dropped
her most innovative album. Titled simply "Beyoncé," the record hit
iTunes in December with barely any publicity; the single "Drunk in Love"
has already sold more than 1 million copies.
and Pepsi. She has a line of fragrances with names like Heat, Rise and
Pulse, and then there’s her clothing company House of Dereon, which
features jeans, shoes and accessories. All together we estimate that
Beyoncé earned $115 million between June 1, 2013 and June 1, 2014.
The singer is embarking on another big year highlighted by her first world tour with her husband, Jay Z.
Their On The Run tour, which kicked off June 25 in Miami, will be short
(only 20 dates are set) but lucrative for the pair, who can claim the
crown as the most powerful celebrity couple in the world.
Full Coverage: The 100 Most Powerful Celebrities
Jay Z also places high on the Celebrity 100 this year, in sixth place
with an estimated $60 million in earnings. That comes from a variety of
sources, including his latest album, Magna Carta … Holy Grail;
dozens of live shows; his growing Roc Nation empire and business
ventures ranging from his 40/40 nightclub chain to his D’Ussé cognac.
FORBES’ annual Celebrity 100 list ranks the top stars from the worlds
of movies, TV, music, sports, books and modelling based on money and
fame.
We estimate earnings by talking to lawyers, producers, agents and
other in-the-know folks to figure out how much over 200 celebrities
earned from entertainment-related business in the past year. That
includes things like music sales, upfront pay on movies and endorsement
work. Our time frame for earnings this year is June 1, 2013 to June 1
2014. We don’t deduct for things like taxes, agent fees or the other
expenses associated with being a celebrity.
We measure fame in a variety of ways. We count how many times each
celebrity was mentioned in print, on TV and radio. We factor in a score
from StarCount for social media power over 12 platforms including Twitter +3.91%, Facebook and YouTube. This year we’ve also added an impact score, similar to the one we use for our Power Women
list. Based on reporting by our editorial staff, the number measures
the impact each celebrity has on the entertainment industry and our
culture overall. We put all of those numbers into an algorithm to come
up with our final list. Justin Bieber had the highest ranking for social
networking power but because of his low impact this year, he only
ranked 33rd on our list, down from ninth last year.
In second place on our list is LeBron James. We estimate that the
basketball player earned $72 million last year. James recently announced
that he’s opting out
of his contract with the Miami Heat to become a free agent. That could
mean an even richer payday for James, who earns big endorsing companies
like Coke and McDonald’s — or not if he decides to sacrifice salary to
build a stronger roster around him.
In third place is Dr. Dre, who earned more in the past 12 months than
anyone in the history of the Celebrity 100. We peg Dre’s earnings at
$620 million thanks to Apple’s purchase of his Beats by Dre for $3
billion. The entrepreneur continues to be influential in the music
business, mentoring Kendrick Lamar, who earned seven Grammy Award
nominations this year.
Last year’s No. 1 celebrity, Oprah Winfrey,
falls to fourth place this year with an estimated $82 million in
earnings. The talk show host’s eponymous cable network, OWN, is finally
turning around (it became cash-flow positive in 2013) and Winfrey helped
make Lee Daniel’s The Butler a hit. But the three celebrities ranked above her just have more influence and power at this moment.
Rounding out the top five is another talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres,
who we estimate earned $70 million in the last 12 months. The new queen
of daytime TV broke the Internet this year when she posted what has
become the most famous “selfie” of all time. Aside from the ratings success of The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
the 56-year-old CoverGirl is beefing up her producing roster. Her
production company is working on pilots for the CW and NBC, and cable
network HGTV will air a DeGeneres-produced design competition series
next year.
Follow me on Twitter at DorothyatForbes.
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