Natalie Portman Is Forbes Best Actor for the Buck in 2012

Forbes has long named Kristen Stewart the highest paid actress in Hollywood for the year but, as it turns out, when it comes to best value for money, she is second to Natalie Portman. The magazine has released its annual “Best Actor for the Buck” list.

Natalie Portman is sitting prettily at number one, returning $42.70 (€32.29) for every $1 (€0.76) she’s paid – now that’s what any movie studio calls a good investment.

Portman’s success is due mainly to the critically acclaimed “Black Swan,” which didn’t just earn her an Oscar but also made a killing at the box office.

Forbes estimates that it was produced for a meager (for Hollywood, that is) $13 million (€9.8 million) and went on to gross $329 million (€248.8 million) at the international box office.

This explains why Portman makes 21 times more money for the studio than Eddie Murphy, who, this year, earned the Forbes title of the most overpriced actor in Hollywood as far as value for money is concerned.

Hot on Natalie Portman’s heels is Kristen Stewart, who returns $40.60 (€3 0.71) for every dollar she’s paid.

Stewart’s road to international fame has been a rather short one: though she’d been working in the industry for some time, it wasn’t until the first “Twilight” movie came out that movie studios started throwing big money at her.

The last two installments, “Breaking Dawn” 1 and 2, made her and her co-stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner the highest paid actors of the young generation.

However, Kristen also managed to climb in this new list from Forbes thanks to “Snow White and the Huntsman,” which came out this year and made four times its budget at the international box office, thus paving the way for a sequel despite rumors to the contrary.

Also in the top 5 are Shia LaBeouf of “ Transformers,” Robert Pattinson and Daniel Radcliffe. The top 10 is rounded up by: Taylor Lautner, Bradley Cooper, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Amy Adams and Kevin James.