Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actors in 2010

Both Eddie Murphy and Denzel Washington were listed in Forbes’ list of Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actor’s 2010.

How did they determine the list? They looked at the 36 highest-earning actors in Hollywood. To qualify, they had to have starred in at least three movies in the past five years that opened in more than 500 theaters.

Forbes used data gathered for their annual Celebrity 100 list to calculate each star’s estimated earnings on each film (including up-front pay and any earnings from the movie’s box-office receipts, DVD and TV sales). They then looked at each movie’s estimated budget and box-office, DVD and television earnings to figure out an operating income for each film.

Then, they added up each star’s compensation on their respective last three films and the operating income on those films, and divided total operating income by the star’s total compensation to come up with a return-on-investment number. The final number represents an average of how much a studio earns for every dollar paid. That formula made my head hurt.

In terms of the formula, for every $1 Washington earned, his films returned an average $5.10.

Will Ferrell, Tom Cruise and Drew Berrymore also made the list.

“Would you rather be underpaid or overrated?”