Hollywood's Highest Paid Actress? 19-Year-Old Emma Watson

By PopEater Staff Posted Feb 5th 2010 04:49PM

Hollywood's leading ladies were honored with Oscar nominations this week, and accomplished and time-tested actresses like Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock both earned nominations. While credibility and experience is always a valued commodity, it's youth that topped the earning list among females in Hollywood this year, as 19-year-old Emma Watson banked the most money in 2009, signaling a major shift in the showbiz landscape.

For years, industry stalwarts like Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston topped the actress earnings list. While they're certainly not Hollywood's most elder crowd, they brought to the table seasoned and respected filmographies along with their good looks. Watson's topping of the Vanity Fair earning chart signifies a shift away from this.

At just 19, Watson's career has infinite possibilities. Her earnings are based largely on her work in the 'Harry Potter' series as Hermione, and the fact that the series' finale is coming in two parts -- for which Watson pulled in $15 million per film. That put her annual bankroll for 2009 at $30 million, edging out Cameron Diaz by 10 percent, as the lanky blonde pulled in $27 million.

While Watson's double-feature certainly helped boost her numbers, it doesn't hide the fact that she's the youngest celebrity -- either male or female -- to make Vanity Fair's top 40 highest paid actors.

Throughout her rise to fame as the 'Potter' movies continued to dominate the box office, Watson has established herself as the anti-child star. While her young Hollywood counterparts were as familiar with DUI handcuffs and rehab stints as they were with boom mics and movie sets, Watson has always conducted herself in a manner nothing short of classy and brilliant. She's currently enrolled in Brown University (yep, the Ivy League one), a step that many successful celebs of college age often bypass.

And the $30 million cited by Vanity Fair is simply based on Watson's 'Potter' work. She's also the face of luxury brand Burberry, though there's no word as to how much she makes for helping the famous khaki-red-black plaid fashion juggernaut.

On the flip side, Watson's 'Harry' co-star Daniel Radcliffe ranks among the top 6 in all of Hollywood, earning $41 million in 2009 according to the list. Of that whopping sum, $40 million was from his work on the 'Potter' films ($20 mil each) and then an extra million thanks to royalties.

Another notable name to pop up in the Top 10 of the highest paid women is the star of another massively popular teen film series. While spots 2-8 are helmed by 20-30-and-40-somethings like Katherine Heigl and Sarah Jessica Parker, 'Twilight' starlet Kristen Stewart, who will be turning 20 in April, came in ninth among all of Hollywood's actresses in the paycheck category.

Tags: emma watson, EmmaWatson

Comments

(16)

Friday 05 February

By Gabby

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This is no surprise considering she's the highest grossing actress of the decade. Go Emma! I hope she continues with acting either while she's at Brown or after she gets her degree.

By duncan

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How much did Emma send to Haiti?

By Celia

Everyone involved with the Harry Potter series: the actors, the fans, and even JK Rowling herself have donated to Haiti. The fans have raised over 100,000 dollars, so Partners in Health are naming three of the planes after Ron, Hermione, and Harry.

Saturday 06 February

By cheryl

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None of ur business!! Do people want the glory of everyone knowing that they donated or being more gracious and keeping it anonymous.

By ChumpMeat

What does Haiti have to do with acting or going to Brown? She might be broke after taxes anyway as I am.

By Rylee

Emma's so pretty!

By oldboy643

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I agree

By Katie Ward

I thought the Harry Potter movies were shot in Europe. Why is she HOLLYWOODS highest paid actress. What does Hollywood have to do with her earnings?

By Ann Ponzi

Emma Watson is very beautiful, but needs to have a little extra weight in her shoulders and upper torso. Her small figure accentuates a large head.
ann

By JeffRey

Good for Emma. With the three major stars of the film established - when they were kids - the Potter movies would not have been such breakthrough achievements. As for Daniel Radcliffe....that guy should be making at least 50 million per film. He should have slapped his fee down on the second film after the first pulled in so much money. No Daniel - No Harry Potter. And as someone who saw hin on Broadway in Equuss he proved to me he has got what it takes BUT will the Potter charachter do him in when the movies are over?

By Mike

No one is worth that much money for acting!

By Nicole D.

So my mom was right, she IS the highest paid actress. I still can't believe it's so...how can she be the highest paid when all she did was those 2 little Harry Potter films? I'm still in disbelief...

By Nancy

It is a smart thing that she makes her money now. I do not see her acting career going far and she is best as a model rather than an actress. Good for her to make her money now.

By emily29388

Just so you'll know AOL. I am more than tired of being told there are a gazillion pictures to see if I follow the lead and then I get a gazillion photos of the same pose snapped rapid fire.
BTW her head isn't huge. It is a normal size head. Her body size makes it look that way.

By LKR

I agree. No one should be paid that much money for acting in a movie. It is rediculous. Look around you folks. Funds are being stripped to the bare bone for schools, health care, for children and seniors, and the list goes on, but policiticans and actors are still being redicously over-paid.

By bev

Shows you how screwed up the world is when people making a movie get this kind of money. The only talent they have is they are good at pretending to be someone else. We glorify all the wrong people these days. We can't wait to see what beautiful, overpriced, clothes they will be wearing and they walk down a stupid red carpet and its suppose to be a big deal.

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