The Chinese kung-fu icon continues to make bank in the middle kingdom despite suffering a drop in the global rankings.
Photo: Weibo.
Chinese kung-fu superstar Jackie Chan has fallen from the world’s second highest paid actor to fifth place, according to Forbes magazine.
In the latest rankings released by the publication on Tuesday, the action legend follows American comedian Adam Sandler with $49 million in earnings pre-tax in a 12 month scoring period, a drop from 2016 when he was positioned at No. 2 just after Dwayne Johnson.
Rapper-turned Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg leads the chart this year with $68 million in earnings thanks to blockbuster movies such as ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’, the fifth installment of the Transformers series.
Chan is also one of the four actors from Asia in the top 10 alongside Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, and the only one from the Chinese speaking world as he continues to rake in his fortune in the middle kingdom.
Chan is often considered one of the world’s biggest names in action with a career that spans half a century and in over 150 films. In November last year, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his “extraordinary achievements” in film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Forbes estimated Chan’s net worth to be $350 million in 2015.
On Tuesday, the Hong Kong superstar announced a return to Hollywood after a seven-year hiatus with action thriller ‘The Foreigner’ to premiere in China on September 30 and October 13 in North America. A British-Chinese co-production, the film also features former Bond Pierce Brosnan in a revenge vendetta.
Chan has also recently signaled a new directorial project, an art house musical film based on a ‘tear-jerking’ story dating back to two decades ago, according to the artist himself. The 63-year-old said he has already chosen a female lead but is keeping her identity under wraps for now.
Additional reporting Amber Ziye Wang
