LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) The Hollywood Reporter crunched some numbers and noted that, even though the highest paid executive in the entertainment industry for 2017 was Live Nation’s Michael Rapino with a paycheck of $70.6 million, the person who has the most lucre in his pockets is Rupert Murdoch.
The leader of Fox and News Corp. sold Fox Studio, Nat Geo and FX to the highest bidder, Disney, which knocked Comcast out of the race and, in the process and led to a recent 70 percent climb in stock. Fox disclosed Sept. 28 that Murdoch made $49.2 million for his work as co-chairman of the company for fiscal year ending June 30 but, as a 17 percent stake holder in Fox, the sale earned him $8.7 billion, too, according to THR.
He was also paid $5.7 million as exec chairman of News Corp. The total of $8.8 billion is about 167 times more than the $43.98 million Disney paid its chairman/CEO, Bob Iger, who will now handle most of Fox’s assets, the Hollywood Reporter noted.
Iger happened to be the third on the list of highest-paid entertainment execs. Sandwiched between him and Rapino is Les Moonves with a paycheck of $69.3 million.
