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 of movie 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

Johnny Depp

John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...

, 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

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...

, Will Smith

Will Smith

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

, Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...

, Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...

, George Clooney

George Clooney

George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...

, Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...

, Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....

, Dakota Fanning

Dakota Fanning

Hannah Dakota Fanning , better known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she appeared in high-profile films such as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web...

, and Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, and Brüno...

.

In the 75 years of the poll, John Wayne

John Wayne

Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...

 placed in the top 10 a record 25 times. Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

 was second with 25 years. Tom Cruise has been ranked the #1 Box Office Star a record seven times, while Tom Hanks, Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...

 and Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

 all have been ranked #1 five times, the latter two for five straight years, respectively.

In 2008, Will Smith

Will Smith

Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...

 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

Hancock

-Places:In the United States:*Hancock, Iowa*Hancock, Maine*Hancock, Maryland*Hancock, Massachusetts*Hancock, Michigan*Hancock, Minnesota*Hancock, New Hampshire*Hancock , New York**Hancock , New York, in the town of Hancock...

, is only the second African-American actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 after Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier

Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...

 in 1968 to top the Quigley poll, which has been running for 76 years." Robert Downey Jr came second, Christian Bale

Christian Bale

Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....

 third and Shia LaBeouf

Shia LaBeouf

Shia Saide LaBeouf is an American actor who became known among younger audiences for his part in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and made his film debut in Holes . In 2007, he starred as the leads in Disturbia and Transformers...

fourth.