The Elite Payroll: How Much China’s Wealthiest Actors Get Paid

The Elite Payroll: How Much China’s Wealthiest Actors Get Paid
Nov 21, 2013 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: For the most part, celebrities in China seem to enjoy a more sheltered life than their Hollywood counterparts; very rarely do you get to see glimpses of their lavish living quarters or profound wealth a la MTV Cribs or some other reality show. However, we all suspect that they live like emperors and now the proof, or at least an indication of just how loaded they are, is finally out.  This translated article from ifeng.com dishes the dirt on how much China’s wealthiest actors and actresses get paid (be warned though that there is no information on how the mysterious netizen who “leaked” the figures even got the info and how accurate it is – not exactly an example of Chinese reporting at its finest!).

In China, acting has got to be the job sector with the fastest rate of pay increases. This is especially the case for those already established; actors who do well will see their pay increase two-fold or more overnight and, depending on their caliber, enjoy annual salaries in the 10 million RMB range, much to the envy of the hardworking souls in other industries. On October 14, Weibo user “烂片通缉令” exposed the paycheck of China’s most famous actors: Jet Li earns 60 million RMB per flick while Zhang Ziyi takes the lead for female actresses with 10-12 million RMB per movie. In fact, even some of those in the television industry can take home paychecks in the millions.

Top earning male actors; only a few surprises

The top earners in the male category weren’t that surprising with Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat and Ge You taking the top spots. What was surprising though was that actor Nicky Wu earned as much per movie as he does per TV show, an amount estimated at around 800,000 RMB. The biggest source of contention among netizens, however, was Liu Ye’s four million RMB paycheck, a sum many deemed “too high”.

Male Actors

Movie Paycheck  (RMB)

TV Shows

Jet-Li (李连杰)

60 million

 

Jackie Chan (成龙)

45-50 million

 

Chow Yun-fat (周润发)

30-35 million

 

Ge You (葛优)

30 million

 

Donnie Yen (甄子丹)

30 million

 

Liu Dehua (刘德华)

20-25 million

 

Tony Leung (梁朝伟)

20-25 million

 

Nicholas Tse (谢霆锋)

12-15 million

 

Jay Chou (周杰伦)

12-15 million

 

Huang Bo (黄渤)

12-15 million

0.6-0.7 million

Louis Koo (古天乐)

12 million

 

Daniel Wu (吴彦祖)

10 million

 

Xu Zheng (徐铮)

10-12 million

 

Wen Zhang (文章)

10 million

0.8 million

Aaron Kwok (郭富城)

8 million

 

Huang Xiaoming (黄晓明)

8 million

0.6-0.7 million

Aloys (陈坤)

8 million

0.7-0.8 million

Sun Honglei (孙红雷)

7 million

 

Chang Chen (张震)

5-6million

 

Sean Andy (刘青云)

5-6million

 

Super (吴秀波)

5 million

0.8 million

William Feng (冯绍峰)

5 million

0.6 million

Mark Zhao (赵又廷)

4-6million

 

Liu Ye (刘烨)

4 million

0.5-0.6 million

Kai Ko (柯震东)

4 million

 

Eddie Peng (彭于晏)

3-4 million

 

Deng Chao (邓超)

3-4 million

0.5 million

Peter Ho (何润东)

3 million

0.5 million

Shawn Yue (余文乐)

3 million

0.5 million

Ethan (阮经天)

2 million

 

Tong Dawei (佟大为)

2-3 million

0.5 million

Huang Haibo (黄海波)

1.5-2 million

0.5-0.6 million

Kenny (林更新)

1-1.5 million

0.2 million

Zhang Guoli (张国立)

1.5-2 million

0.5-0.6 million

Wang Xueqi (王学圻)

2 million

0.4 million

Lu Yi (陆毅)

1 million

0.4 million

Li Xuejian (李雪健)

1 million

0.3-0.4 million

Nicholas Wu (吴奇隆)

0.8-1 million

0.7-0.8 million

Hu Ge (胡歌)

2 million

0.5 million

Chen Jianbin (陈建斌)

0.5-1 million

0.5 million

Hans zhang (张翰)

0.5 million

0.25 million

Wallace Huo (霍建华)

0.5 million

0.3 million

Chen Xiao (陈晓)

0.5 million

0.2 million

Pan Yueming (潘粤明)

0.5 million

0.5 million

Du Chun (杜淳)

0.3-0.5 million

0.4 million

Zhang Tielin (张铁林)

0.3-0.5 million

0.5 million

Edison Chen (陈冠希)

封杀

 

Top earning female actors

Zhang Ziyi snagged the number one spot with her 10-12 million RMB paychecks, surpassing acting heavy-weight Gong Li. Close behind were Shu Qi and Fan Bingbing (80 million per movie). In recent years, major blockbusters have secured Zhou Xun paychecks up to 7 million RMB, and Zhao Wei’s checks have also begun to close in the gap. A major surprise in this category was Xie Na’s fat paycheck of 500,000 RMB per movie and another 100,000 RMB for her television roles.

As the Chinese film and television industry contains to flourish, China’s acting elite will continue to see bigger paychecks flying their way. For example, actress Cecilia Cheung has seen her paycheck swell to 10 million RMB, a four-fold increase for the Hong Kong actress/singer.

Female Actors

Movie Paycheck

TV Shows

Zhang Ziyi (章子怡)

10-12 million

 

Gong Li (巩俐)

10 million

 

Hsu Chi (舒淇)

8 million

 

Fan Bingbing (范冰冰)

8 million

0.6-0.7 million

Vicki Zhao (赵薇)

7-8 million

 

Zhou Xun (周迅)

7 million

0.8-1 million

Li Bingbing (李冰冰)

5 million

 

Angela Baby (杨颖)

4 million

0.5 million

Chiling Lin (林志玲)

3-4 million

 

Yao Chen (姚晨)

3 million

0.5 million

Yang Mi (杨幂)

3 million

0.5 million

Sun Li (孙俪)

2-3 million

0.7-0.8 million

Gao Yuanyuan (高圆圆)

2.5 million

0.3-0.4 million

Yan Ni (闫妮)

2 million

0.4-0.5 million

Michelle Chen (陈妍希)

1.5-2 million

 

Zhou Dongyu (周冬雨)

1.5-2 million

 

Zhang Jingchu (张静初)

1-1.5 million

 

Ni Ni (倪妮)

1million

0.2 million

Joe Chen (陈乔恩)

1million

0.3-0.4 million

Christina (海清)

0.7-1 million

0.5 million

Ruby Lin (林心如)

0.7-1 million

0.5 million

Jacqueline (李小璐)

0.5-0.8 million

 

Cecilia Cheung (张柏芝)

 

 

Huo Siyan (霍思燕)

0.5 million

0.25-0.3 million

Tiffany Tang (唐嫣)

0.5 million

0.3 million

May (王珞丹)

0.5 million

0.3-0.4 million

Qin Lan (秦岚)

0.5 million

0.3 million

Shu Chen (陈数)

0.5 million

0.3 million

Yuan Li (袁立)

0.5 million

 

Cecilia (刘诗诗)

0.5 million

0.3-0.4 million

Ada (柳岩)

0.5 million

0.1 million

Nana (谢娜)

0.5 million

0.1 million

Zanilia (赵丽颖)

 

0.7-1 million

 

Source: ifeng.com

Warning:The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.

Keywords: China’s wealthiest actors top earning actors China

8 Comments

All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.

bill8899

Good, a list of actors without Tom Cruise!

Jan 31, 2014 17:21 Report Abuse

Guest2368048

I would rather be their counterparts in countries where everyone in my family (including my dog and plants) are breathing clean air, drinking uncontaminated water, and taking real medicine when sick.

Nov 21, 2013 13:44 Report Abuse

Baivab

Who the heck wants to know this??

Nov 21, 2013 09:34 Report Abuse

Nessquick

the ecity is under the Big Brother eyes, so this is one of the allowed article :P

Nov 21, 2013 14:18 Report Abuse

DaqingDevil

Gee...I have to get out more. Apart from the top 3 male actors I have never heard of or seen in a movie any of the others mentioned. Sorry about that.

Nov 21, 2013 07:02 Report Abuse

cooter

Yeah, you do :P Donnie Yen? Ip Man? Awesome movie, and I think his kung fu is a lot better than the top 3 listed. On the girls side, the top 3 have been in movies released in the US, so they're at least somewhat known. You haven't seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Zhang Ziyi), Miami Vice (Gong Li), or Transporter (Hsu Chi)? Go watch them, now :P

Nov 21, 2013 08:13 Report Abuse

Vyborg

Don't worry, 'famous in China' is enough for most of them. Or would anyone really think they could conquer the world under the name 'Super'? 'Ethan'? 'Kenny'? Or the ladies: 'Angela Baby', 'May', 'Ada', 'Nana'... safe & sound forever behind the wall.

Nov 21, 2013 10:54 Report Abuse