Mark Wahlberg had himself a year. A fresh round of industry math pegs his 2025 haul at around $60 million, which puts him right up there with the highest-paid actors. Translation: the streaming-first strategy he has been leaning on is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.
The number
Forbes estimates Wahlberg pulled in roughly $60 million over the past year. On a gross basis — before taxes and team fees — that kind of total would have landed him in the top five on last year’s highest-paid actors list. However you slice it, that is elite money.
Streaming is the engine
Wahlberg’s checks are largely coming from the platforms. Since 2020, he has headlined seven streaming movies across four of the biggest services: Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Paramount+. In 2025 alone he dropped Play Dirty on Prime Video and The Family Plan 2 on Apple TV+, and also squeezed in a limited theatrical run for Flight Risk.
The gig rate helps too. Forbes puts his per-project payday in the $20–25 million range. Stack a couple of those in a year and the math starts doing cartwheels.
Receipts to back it up
It is not just big upfronts — the viewing data backs his draw. Play Dirty shot to the top of Prime Video’s charts and pulled in close to 23 million hours watched in its first three weeks. Apple previously said The Family Plan was its most-watched film at launch, and over on Netflix, The Union just missed cracking the service’s all-time top 10 list.
Netflix’s own viewing report for the first half of 2025 adds another layer: users spent more than 350 million hours watching films led by Wahlberg between January and June. That is a massive footprint for one star in six months.
He has not ghosted theaters
While streaming pays the bills, he is still popping up in cinemas. Recent big-screen picks include a supporting turn in Uncharted and lead roles in smaller, more modestly priced plays like Flight Risk, Father Stu, and Arthur the King. Flight Risk, which rolled out earlier this year, earned $48 million worldwide in theaters and then found a strong second life on video-on-demand.
Bottom line: if you can headline reliably across multiple platforms and keep the output steady, the checks add up quickly — and Wahlberg’s 2025 is exhibit A.