This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.
Sometimes there are people who wonder why journalists and culture writers spend so much of their time parsing celebrities’ behavior and writing pieces about what their actions mean.
Thanks to a bombshell reported piece from The Hollywood Reporter on Johnny Depp, who in November lost a U.K. lawsuit that essentially allowed the press to call him a “wife beater” after hearing evidence about his actions against Amber Heard, you can tally just how much money is behind enabling the actions of a person of Depp’s stature.
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As a reminder, Depp remained a fixture of Hollywood blockbusters and luxury ad campaigns until his firing from the upcoming Fantastic Beasts sequel despite Heard’s allegations first surfacing in 2016—and reports of his erratic behavior being common knowledge long before that.
Here’s a look by the numbers, thanks to that THR article, at the privilege he was afforded because he was Johnny Depp.
$10 billion: The amount Depp is estimated to have brought to the box office in his career.
$40 million: Estimated take from each Pirates of the Caribbean film.
$3 million: His estimated salary for his next film, Minamata, a “reduction” in pay following his allegations.
2: Times a crew member claimed Depp punched him while intoxicated while on the 2018 set of City of Lies.
$20 million: Depp’s upfront payday for 2017’s Pirates…: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
8: Number of ecstasy pills Depp allegedly swallowed at once while filming Dead Men Tell No Tales.
$350,000: Cost per day, for two weeks, of Depp being flown back to L.A. for production of Dead Men Tell No Tales because he sliced his fingertip off in an alleged altercation with Heard after those pills.
$50 million: Damages Depp is seeking in his defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard.
$1.25 million: Payoff Depp allegedly gave to his first wife, Lori Allen, to keep her from releasing a ranting message in which he repeatedly used the N-word.
14: Residences Depp owns.
$30,000: Budget per month Depp allegedly spent on wine.
$5 million: Cost to have Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes fired out of a cannon from a tall tower, which Depp apparently paid for as a tribute.
$3 million: Tally of Depp’s on-set rider demands when filming.
$16 million: Depp’s salary that was paid in full for the Fantastic Beasts sequel he was fired from.
1: Number of scenes he had shot before being fired.
12: Occasions a U.K. judge ruled that “Depp did indeed assault Amber,” according to Time’s Up Legal Defense’s co-founder
20: Depp’s 2020 rank in Q-scores, meaning he’s still the 20th most liked celebrity in spite of all this.
