Here's how much the Marvel stars earned for Avengers: Endgame

With Avengers: Endgame smashing a whole bunch of box office records to become the second-highest-grossing film of all time, it'll probably come as no surprise to learn that the actors themselves enjoyed some of their most lucrative paydays to date.

From Forbes' list of the highest-earning entertainers of the year, six Endgame stars made it into the top 100.

In 24th place, the highest-earning Avenger is Thor star Chris Hemsworth with $76.4m – although his overall tally isn't based purely on Avengers movies.

Behind him is Iron Man aka Tony Stark actor Robert Downey Jr with $66m, followed by Bradley Cooper (Rocket Racoon) with $57m and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) who earned $56m.

Coming up the rear is Captain America star Chris Evans, who brought in $43.5m, while Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) earned $41m.

These stars have proved to be so valuable to Marvel that they've been able to claim a piece of the film's profits – in what is known as contingent compensation – which is really where they've made their money.

Entertainment lawyer David Chidekel told Forbes: “Celebrities such as Downey and Johansson currently have extreme leverage to demand enormous compensation packages from studios investing hundreds of millions of dollars in making tent-pole films, such as The Avengers series.

"A studio’s incentive to grant contingent compensation to various actors, writers, directors and other key personnel is simple. Movie studios depend upon tent-pole films to support their financial performance."

And if you're wondering why Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) and Tom Holland (Spider-Man) aren't in the top 100 list, it's because Marvel offers their actors multi-movie deals which typically start with a seven figure sum. In other words, they haven't been around long enough yet.