Johnny Depp tops Forbes's most overpaid actor list for 2015

Johnny Depp has been named the most overpaid Hollywood actor of 2015 by Forbes magazine, topping a list that also includes Denzel Washington, Channing Tatum and Brad Pitt.

Forbes has released its annual list calculating the amount of money an actor's film earns versus their salary and found that Johnny Depp tops the unenviable reckoning.

The list is based on figures calculated from the last three films the actors starred in before June this year, reports the BBC. It revealed that Depp returned only $1.20 (81p) for every $1 (67p) he was paid.

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Depp, who is one of the highest-paid actors in the world, with estimated annual earnings of $30m (£20m), has had an unfortunate run of films over the past 12 months. His film releases included the comedy Mortdecai, which was a critical and commercial flop, and only made back $47.4m (£32m) of its $60m (£40.5m) production budget.

Depp's 2014 sci-fi thriller Transcendence, was another disappointment and only just made back its costs. The Lone Ranger also bombed at the box office following scathing reviews.

Still, Depp is in good company, acknowledges the Daily Mail. He's joined on the list by stars like Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum and Tom Cruise who are also in the top ten of underperformers. Denzel Washington was ranked second on the list, returning $6.50 (£4.39) on every dollar, with Will Ferrell in third place with a $6.80 return per $1.

The big winner though was Chris Evans who returned an impressive $181.80 for every $1 he received in salary to top the "best value" actors' list. This was largely thanks to his role in Captain America and The Avengers films.

Channing Tatum was a surprise inclusion on the "overpaid" list at seventh place, notes The Guardian. This is mainly due to his appearance in the chaotic Wachowski siblings's space fantasy epic Jupiter Ascending, which was a box office bomb. Forbes admits that his place on the list is unfortunate, as he missed out on the benefit of the success of this year's Magic Mike XXL. It was released in US cinemas on 1 July, just after the cut-off point for calculations.

Some might have been surprised to see that Adam Sandler was not on the list this year, after he gained first place in 2013 and 2014. But The Guardian points out that Sandler, "cunningly" signed a deal to screen his films via Netflix, making him ineligible for this year's tally as most of his projects didn't appear in cinemas.

But the Forbes study was good news for women actors. While the top ten most overpaid actors are all men, in the list of the top ten "best value actors" half were male and half female. They include Mila Kunis, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence.

The List of Most Overpaid Actors:

1. Johnny Depp: $1.20 per $1

2. Denzel Washington: $6.50 per $1

3. Will Ferrell: $6.80 per $1

4. Liam Neeson: $7.80 per $1

5. Will Smith: $8.60 per $1

6. Christian Bale: $9.20 per $1

7. Channing Tatum: $10.80 per $1

8. Brad Pitt: $12.00 per $1

9. Ben Affleck: $12.30 per $1

10. Tom Cruise: $13.60 per $1