Pacquiao is the world’s 2nd highest-paid celebrity

THE PHILIPPINES’ most famous athlete, world-class boxer Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao, is the second highest-paid celebrity in the planet, beating many other athletes, musicians or artists from Hollywood and beyond.

Based on Forbes Magazine’s 16th annual “Celebrity 100” ranking of the world’s top-earning celebrities (found at www.forbes.com/celebrities), Pacquiao – with estimated earnings of $160 million – ranked next only to his American arch-rival Floyd Mayweather who topped this year’s list with $300 million in earnings.

Forbes has released its “Celebrity 100” list every year since 1999 as a tally of the “most powerful” celebrities from the worlds of movies, television, music, sports and books on their earnings and overall media footprint.

This list measures and ranks the earnings of the highest-paid entertainers on the planet over the past 12 months. Earnings are measured based entirely on earnings over the last year. Earnings consisted of pretax income between June 1, 2014 and June 1, 2015 while management, agent and attorney fees were not deducted.

“The result is the definitive index of who’s making what in the global business of fame,” the magazine said.

For the first time, Forbes said the Celebrity 100 list is “truly international” as it had included talent from across the entire entertainment world – from Hollywood to Bollywood – in its ranking.

Mayweather might just have had the “least surprising” payday of all time, the magazine said, noting that the undefeated boxer’s $300 million earnings marked the highest annual sum ever for an athlete—mostly from his controversial May 2, 2015 victory over Pacquiao.

This much-awaited fight in Las Vegas turned out to be heart-breaking for the Filipino nation as Mayweather was declared the winner by unanimous decision. Pacquiao, on the other hand, was reported to have fought with a shoulder injury.

Forbes noted that the fight had spawned a record 4.4 million pay-per-view transactions and exhaustive global media coverage.

In the magazine’s July 20, 2015 issue, the two athletes ranked higher than American pop singer Katy Perry, who ranked third place with estimated earnings of $135 million.

Boy band “One Direction” ranked number four on the list with $130 million in earnings while American radio star Howard Stern ranked fifth with $95 million in estimated earnings.
Completing the top 10 roster are:
– American singer-songwriter Garth Brooks was the sixth placer with $90 million;
– American author James Patterson, best known for novels about fictional psychologist Alex Cross, was seventh placer with $89 million;
– American actor Robert Downey Jr., who has made a big comeback as the “Iron Man” in the Avengers series, ranked eighth with estimated earnings of $80 million, sharing the ranking with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift who earned an equal sum; and,
– Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo of Spanish club Real Madrid ranked 10th with estimated estimated earnings of $79.5 million.

This year, musicians ranked high on the list, dominating 10 out of the top 25 on the list.

Other notable celebrities outside the top 10 list were the following: The Eagles (No. 14), Calvin Harris (No. 17), Justin Timberlake (No. 19), Diddy (No. 21), Fleetwood Mac (No. 24) and Lady Gaga (No. 25).

Overall, the latest Celebrity 100 list includes 38 musicians, 29 athletes, 19 actors, six international personalities, three radio stars, two comedians, one chef, one model and one author.