Vulture’s Most Valuable Stars of 2015

Hugh Jackman plans to hang up the claws after his next Wolverine movie, but if he keeps diversifying his portfolio with movies like Prisoners and Les Misérables, he'll be well-positioned for life after Marvel. (And when it comes to likability, he's one of the highest-rated actors on this list.) This year was a bit curious for Jackman - neither Chappie nor Pan worked, and it's hard to tell what drew him to play the baddie in either project - but he's still among Hollywood's most solid, talented leading men.

Photo: Photo Image Press

Last year's Lucy proved that Scarlett Johansson is one of the world's biggest stars, and this summer's Avengers: Age of Ultron added yet another all-time smash to her résumé. She's on a mighty roll right now, which is why Johansson vaulted into this list's top ten - and her 2016 looks just as solid, with appearances in the Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar!, a voice role in Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, and another co-lead in the sure-to-be-massive Captain America: Civil War dominating the first half of the year.

Photo: Mayer RCF/Splash NEws

Two years ago, Chris Pratt wasn't even on this list; now, off the backs of global blockbusters Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, he's within striking distance of the top ten. Everyone wants to work with him - he has our fourth-highest studio score, and he's rumored for just about every franchise or reboot in town - but even more impressively, he earned the highest likability score on this list, out-polling beloved veterans like Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks. It's no wonder that Pratt is co-starring opposite Jennifer Lawrence in next year's Passengers, since he, too, is one of Hollywood's rare, bona fide new stars.

Photo: Albert L. Ortega

After a few years of close-but-no-cigar attempts at a blockbuster hit, Damon has scored the biggest success of his career with Ridley Scott's The Martian, a huge box-office performer that may make significant inroads into awards season, too. Yes, Damon took a few lumps in the press for his awkward comments on diversity and gay actors, but career-wise, he's putting everything together awfully well now, setting up a new Bourne sequel with director Paul Greengrass and signing to star in Alexander Payne's ambitious new satire Downsizing.

Photo: Danny Martindale

Last year, the final piece of the McConaissance fell into place: After restoring his critical career with an indie arc that eventually netted him an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, McConaughey returned to the studio system with a vengeance, starring in the massive worldwide hit Interstellar, the biggest movie of his career. Fortunately, McConaughey hasn't abandoned what works, or thrown away his indie mojo to suckle at the studio teat once more: His next project is the ambitious Civil War drama The Free State of Jones, directed by Gary Ross.

Photo: Xavier Collin/Image Press/Splash

By this point considered Hollywood royalty, Brad Pitt can at least be commended for his willingness to keep switching things up. A Euro-style marital drama like By the Sea and a scrubbed-down ensemble role in The Big Short are not the types of projects that super-glam leading men usually put their star power toward, but Pitt has always had a canny reticence toward his stardom that reflects his onscreen acting style. Perhaps that's why his carefully curated career continues to earn high marks in every metric.

Photo: Chung Sung-Jun

It's fitting that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt occupy side-by-side spots on the Most Valuable Stars list, given that By the Sea makes good use of their marital intimacy. Jolie dropped a bit from last year's list because she wasn't in a film during the measuring period, a casualty of her intermittent acting career giving way to a newfound passion for directing. But she's still one of the most famous women in the world, and whenever she wants to step into a high-wattage studio movie, the role (and the audience) will be there for her.

Photo: Jon Kopaloff

Here's how far Ben Affleck has come from his Gigli days as a critical punching bag: He's now got one of the highest critic scores on our list, thanks to a savvy reconstruction of his career that included one Best Picture winner (Argo). Can he retain that score as he now leaps into comic-book fare with Batman v Superman? Whatever the pundits make of that, it will undoubtedly pump up his box-office metric, helping offset the one score where Affleck is ailing: After those nanny-cheating headlines, his likability score plummeted in the last year.

Photo: Michael Tran

The five-year Most Valuable Stars consideration window puts in stark relief the sort of comeback that Charlize Theron has mounted: Now that a passel of her lowest-grossing films from the late '00s have been excluded from the sampling period (bye-bye, The Burning Plain, Battle in Seattle, and The Road), Theron's box-office scores have taken a significant, Mad Max–aided bump. She also got a nice lift in her studio score since her Furiosa became an immediately iconic action-movie heroine. Next up: more tentpole badassery in the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman.

Photo: Mireya Acierto

Denzel Washington has always been a solid star, but could he use a little excitement? His studio, likability, and gossip scores all dropped a notch this year, knocking Washington from his comfortable top-ten berth. It's not like he stopped delivering at the box office: The Equalizer was another solid pick that spawned a franchise, even though the first one finished at a fine-but-not-fantastic $101 million (and failed to make too much more abroad). Maybe his 2016 redo of The Magnificent Seven, co-starring the potent Chris Pratt, can kick Washington back up to where he ought to be.

Photo: Noel Vasquez

Christian Bale dropped a handful of places from last year's list (No. 18) thanks to the widely disliked, underperforming Exodus: Gods and Kings. That was a stumble for the English actor, but those megagrossing Dark Knight films and his continued Oscar-friendliness will keep him aloft for the time being … at least until Ben Affleck's new reign under the cowl makes Bale's blockbuster Batman-past yesterday's news.

Photo: Gary Gershoff

Jake Gyllenhaal has one of the highest critical scores on this list, and it's no wonder: The Oscar-nominated heartthrob has been deep-diving into drama over the last few years, turning in acclaimed performances in movies like Nightcrawler, Prisoners, and Southpaw. While Gyllenhaal isn't exactly setting the box office on fire - he's only been in one movie that hit $100 million domestically, 2004's The Day After Tomorrow - he still enjoys high name recognition and has a career arc that's catnip to every hot director.

Photo: Kevin Winter

Hollywood's favorite YA star is the go-to look for any adaptation in need of a female protagonist. But can Woodley expand beyond dystopian franchises and tear-jerking teen angst? She'll try with Snowden, Oliver Stone's Joseph Gordon-Levitt–led, sure-to-be-controversial biopic on the horizon. At 24, Woodley's only getting further in age from her current audience, so a strong foothold in the world of adult drama could help this talented actress make the leap - that is, if Stone comes with more of a JFK and less of a W.

Photo: Jon Kopaloff

If you're someone who spends any time on the internet (hi!), you'd be forgiven for thinking that Amy Schumer isn't the most valuable star in Hollywood. But considering she wasn't even on last year's list, No. 39 ain't bad for the comedian, and studios are even more excited for her than the World Wide Web. Just wait for that buddy comedy she's writing with the Most Valuable of Stars: This rocket's going up, up, up.

Photo: Steve Granitz

Despite the occasional ardent supporter, Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, Lost River, was a calamity both critically and commercially, with it barely even receiving a theatrical release. Fortunately for the tabloids and fans of indistinguishable accents everywhere, Gosling's coming back hard, which explains his 31-spot leap in this year's rankings. The Return of the Gos starts with this winter's The Big Short, where he'll be competing with a handful of Hollywood's top leading men for a little Oscar love. Then it's La La Land, Shane Black's The Nice Guys, the new Blade Runner, and maybe even that Terrence Malick Austin music-scene movie that's been in the ether for a while now.

Photo: Karwai Tang

Oh, the plight of an Oscar hopeful. Fassbender was a rising star and a shoo-in for a Best Actor nom on the eve of Steve Jobs's release. But in the wake of Aaron Sorkin's latest coming up way short at the box office, trades have been wondering whether Fassbender held the film back with American viewers. Still, no one's worried about Fassbender's chops, and the studios and critics still love him. With Assassin's Creed on the horizon, he'll have another shot at making a bona fide hit.

Photo: James Higgins

Going into awards season, there was talk that Cate Blanchett's biggest competition for Best Actress might be herself. Fast-forward a month, and Truth has come and gone faster than you can say, “This is [tick, tick, tick] … 60 Minutes.� Nonetheless, Carol's still on the horizon, and while it's another scenery-chewing turn for the Aussie, there's a very good chance it'll land Blanchett her sixth Oscar nom. But will it be enough to lift Blanchett's shockingly low critical score?

Photo: Stuart C. Wilson

Last year we said Ryan Reynolds was “plotting his careful comeback,� and the proof is in the pudding: Mr. Blake Lively is up 55 spots this year, having wooed both critics (Mississippi Grind) and fanboys, who are giddy for his upcoming Deadpool. If the super-/antihero flick hits like expected, Reynolds's comeback could be complete, and he might become the well-rounded leading man he's always threatened to be. If it doesn't - well, let's just say that you only get so many second chances.

Photo: Warren Toda

It's been a bittersweet year for former Best Actor nominee Jeremy Renner, a distinction that feels weirder and weirder the farther we get from The Hurt Locker. He appeared in two of the year's top ten movies, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Avengers: Age of Ultron, but they were both supporting roles, and neither gave Renner all that much to do - Age of Ultron's bizarre Hawkeye subplot notwithstanding. What looks to be a major role in rising auteur Denis Villeneuve's next movie could be what Renner needs to get out of the franchise doghouse, even if there are far worse doghouses to be in.

Photo: Earl Gibson III

Jamie Foxx keeps busy, but lately it hasn't been with acting: his last movie was Annie in 2014, and he only has one - a remake of the French crime thriller Sleepless Night - coming in 2016. That alone could explain his small drop from last year (No. 42), but the fact that he remains this high is a testament to the fact that when Foxx does take a role, he makes an impression - even if that star turn in Django Unchained is only getting farther away.

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez

With a low studio score and sky-high likability, Helen Mirren is a testament to the strange disconnect in Hollywood regarding older actresses: The public loves them, but the industry can't find a place for them. Regardless, Mirren continues to work - she has modest awards buzz generated by her role in Trumbo - and that's helped vault her onto this year's list after being absent last year. And good thing, too: If the movies can't find a place for an actress as good as Mirren, then something is hopelessly broken.

Photo: Photo Image Press

Tom Hardy has one of the highest critic scores on our list, but even with Mad Max's success earlier this year, the fact remains that he's yet to really bring in the kind of bucks you'd expect of a legitimate movie star. The question isn't can he, though: The question is, does he care? Hardy continues to prefer challenging, ambitious fare, with Legend and The Revenant both poised to bolster that critic score this winter, and the latter possibly to nab him his first Oscar nom. With more Mad Max movies likely coming down the (fury) road, at least he has a franchise, albeit an unconventional one, to bolster his rep with Joe Moviegoer.

Photo: Diego Corredor

The post-SNL career can be a dubious prospect, but you'd never know it from Kristen Wiig. She's led her own hit comedy (Bridesmaids), become a fixture in the indie world (The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Welcome to Me, and Nasty Baby, all just this year), and nabbed a supporting part in a blockbuster space movie (The Martian). That upward trajectory will only continue with her starring role in the Ghostbusters reboot next year, and she's convinced critics, studios, and audiences that she can do both drama and comedy. The next step might be the kind of role that could court Oscar - and considering her track record, nothing's out of the question.

Photo: Jason LaVeris

Mila Kunis had the misfortune of playing the lead role in Jupiter Ascending, the Wachowskis' mega-budget sci-fi train wreck that tanked hard at the box office earlier in 2015. No actress could've saved that film, but it was the latest in a long string of rough outings for Kunis, and it has resulted in her tumbling down the list for the third straight year. The disappointments are taking their toll: No star on our list has a lower studio score than Kunis, though she's helped by strong gossip and likability ratings. The public hasn't tired of her - she just needs a decent part.

Photo: Byron Purvis

No doubt about it: Losing his perch as Spider-Man in so unceremonious a fashion hurt, which is why he's plummeted 28 points from last year. (It's never a good look when the studio pulls the plug on your franchise right after a movie that ended on a cliffhanger.) But Andrew Garfield, who seems to be a forthright fellow with a good head on his shoulders, always seemed to be better suited for great, meaty serious parts than superhero flicks. His acclaimed turn in Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes, which might be in the Oscar hunt this year, will only help his case - as will, hopefully, Martin Scorsese's upcoming Silence.

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez

The jury's out on whether his directorial outing The Water Diviner helped Crowe's career as an actor or not. The film was well liked in his native Australia, but it vanished Stateside, and seeing him romance younger co-star Olga Kurylenko seemed to perfectly embody the film industry's nauseating age gap. In recent years, he's seemed content to work in smaller roles with the occasional lead in an auteur-driven vehicle. (See: Noah.) Can he return to the glory of his early-aughts Oscar years? Does he even want to? But his upcoming turn in Shane Black's '70s-era crime film The Nice Guys, co-starring Ryan Gosling, gives us hope.

Photo: Ciao Hollywood

After years of being the best thing in a lot of movies both big and small, Ruffalo garnered a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination for Foxcatcher in 2014, and he may very well win that award for Spotlight this year. (His main competition could be some of his co-stars.) Meanwhile, he brought the requisite charm to the role of Bruce Banner in Avengers: Age of Ultron, once again proving his ability to nail one of Marvel's trickier heroes, and we'd still love to see him in a stand-alone Hulk film. He's also a dedicated anti-fracking activist, so if he does win that Oscar, expect a passionate acceptance speech – but delivered in that rumpled, endlessly charming way of his.

Photo: Todd Williamson

Twitter loves her, critics love her, and pretty much nobody has anything bad to say about her, ever - both as a person and as a performer. (She even got some extra media lift from the success of Jurassic World, a movie she had nothing to do with, thanks to her resemblance to that film's star Bryce Dallas Howard.) Her appearances in Interstellar and A Most Violent Year didn't quite live up to their advance awards buzz, but she's one of the best things in this year's beloved The Martian. She was similarly appealing in the significantly less-beloved Crimson Peak. Could another Oscar nomination be in the works this year? It depends on how far The Martian goes.

Photo: Ray Tamarra

He won an Oscar against considerable competition for The Theory of Everything earlier this year, and may well be in the running again this season for The Danish Girl. And just in time for all of us to start tiring of him in awards-season prestige projects, he'll have the lead in next year's J.K. Rowling adaptation Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which will give him a chance to demonstrate both his comic side and his box-office potential. (Meanwhile, he should be thanking his lucky stars that no one saw his hilariously campy villain in Jupiter Ascending.)

Photo: Splash News/Corbis

For a guy who had the lead in the Oscar sleeper Whiplash, Teller has had a kind of terrible year, mainly thanks to the historic flop of Fantastic Four. That film's failure was laid squarely at the feet of director Josh Trank, but Teller's lack of charisma in the film was still disconcerting; we'll chalk it up to the extensive reshoots. A fairly disastrous Esquire cover profile, in which he came off as Ãœber-cocky, didn't help matters. He's still one of the best actors of his generation, but it remains to be seen whether he'll be the next Christian Bale or the next Shia LaBeouf.

Photo: Erik Pendzich

The world has been waiting for Idris Elba to become an A-list movie star for some years now; just look at the social-media feeding frenzy that happens whenever someone suggests (or decries) him as a potential James Bond. His excellent, no-holds-barred performance in Beasts of No Nation seems to be a natural Oscar contender, but the film took something of a hit when its theatrical release went nowhere; it remains to be seen whether the news that millions have already seen it on Netflix will help matters. (Similarly, he won acclaim last year for his lead role in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, but the film itself was weak.) Everybody seems to like him, and he's steadily become a familiar face by doing solid supporting work in blockbusters like Thor and Prometheus. We're all waiting for that one role that will finally make him a superstar.

Photo: Didier Baverel

Last year, we predicted that Moore, then positioned at No. 87 on the list, would rise further if she won an Oscar for Still Alice. Welp, she won … aaaaaand slipped to No. 99. So, what happened? Well, The Seventh Son, a dreadful fantasy adventure in which she hammed it up as the villain, happened. And her drama Freeheld, about a dying cop fighting for her lesbian partner's right to her pension, went nowhere, though she was solid in it. Good thing she has another Hunger Games entry coming up.

Photo: Reimschuessel