The Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll has been published every year, from a poll of movie exhibitors, every year since 1932 by Quigley Publishing Company. The list is based on a poll ofmovie theater owners, who are asked to name the previous year's top 10 moneymaking stars. The Top 10 Poll, which appears annually in Quigley's International Motion Picture Almanac has long been regarded as one of the most reliable barmoters of a movie star's box-office power, as film exhibitors base their decisions on economic criteria: those stars who will bring patrons into their theaters.
Johnny Depp, propelled by the runaway success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, topped the top for the first time in 2006. Rounding out the top ten were, in descending order of popularity, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Will Ferrell, Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, and Sacha Baron Cohen.
In the 75 years of the poll, John Wayne placed in the top 10 a record 25 times. Clint Eastwood was second with 25 years. Tom Cruise has been ranked the #1 Box Office Star a record seven times, while Tom Hanks, Burt Reynolds and Bing Crosby all have been ranked #1 five times, the latter two for five straight years, respectively.
In 2008, Will Smith was voted the top money-making movie star of 2008 in an annual poll of US cinema owners and film buyers. The BBC News website reported that, "Smith, star of Hancock, is only the second African-American actor after Sidney Poitier in 1968 to top the Quigley poll, which has been running for 76 years."[1] Robert Downey Jr came second, Christian Bale third and Shia LaBeouf fourth.
