Forbes Celebrity Rich List 2015: Katy Perry Highest Paid Musician and Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris the New Power Couple

It’s Forbes Rich List season and the latest to be revealed is one of our favourites — the Celebrity 100.

This year’s list of the highest-earning celebrities saw quite the shuffle thanks in large part to the fact that boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiano took out the top two sports after making an absolute fortune out of their Las Vegas ‘fight of the century’ in May.

Somewhat surprising was the fact that Katy Perry, who earned a cool $135 million during her Prismatic World Tour year, came in at number three, beating out every other musician on the planet. Yes, that includes Beyoncé who slipped to number 29 after taking out the top spot last year.

We imagine known rival Taylor Swift is not-so thrilled at that prospect, but, at a tied number eight with Robert Downey Jr., she can at least find some solace in the fact that her and new beau Calvin Harris (number 17) managed to find themselves nabbing the title of the world’s highest-paid celebrity couple from under Bey and Jay’s feet. Together, Swift and Harris raked in $146 million compared to our former King and Queen’s combined $110.5 million.

Perry and Swift are the only two women in a top ten dominated by musicians and athletes. The list is compiled by estimating the star’s pre-tax earnings from June 1 2014 to June 1 2015 with no management, agent, or attorney fees deducted from the total.

Kim Kardashian managed to double her earnings this year from $28 million in the previous list, to an estimated $52.5 million this year. This placed her just above Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence who was number 34 with $52 million. Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson (number 65 with $35.5 million) are the only two film actresses to make the 100 list, compared to 14 male movie stars.

The Forbes list of the world’s highest paid celebrities

1. Floyd Mayweather, 38, $US300m
2. Manny Pacquiao, 36, $US160m
3. Katy Perry, 30, $US135m
4. One Direction, $US130m
5. Howard Stern, 61, $95m
6. Garth Brooks, 53, $US90m
7. James Patterson, 68, $US89m
8. Robert Downey Jr., 50, $US80m
9. Taylor Swift, 25, $US80m
10. Cristiano Ronaldo, 30, $79.5m
11. Rush Limbaugh, 64, $US79m
12. Ellen DeGeneres, 57, $US75m
13. Lionel Messi, 28, $US74m
14. The Eagles, $US73.5m
15. Dr Phil McGraw, 64, $US70m
16. Roger Federer, 33, $US67m
17. Calvin Harris, 31, $US66m
18. LeBron James, 30, $US65m
19. Justin Timberlake, 34, $US63.5m
20. David Copperfield, 58, $US63m

Source: Forbes
Images: Zimbio