Dear John vs. Avatar, and why do the Harry Potter stars make so much money?

"Dear John" knocked "Avatar" from it's top spot at the box office! I'm looking forward to seeing Dear John, I'm a fan of Amanda Seyfried and am glad to see she's moved on from "Mean Girls" to bigger and better things. Though if "Dear John" follows Nicholas Sparks' normal storyline, she or costar Channing Tatum will have a tragic death by the end of the film. Haven't had a chance to read the book yet, so it will be a surprise. Tatum plays a soldier on leave who falls in love with Seyfried, so it would seem that he is primed to die, but that seems to obvious so I'm betting it will be Seyfried who perishes.

CNN.com entertainment released this interesting list of the top 40 people making the most money in Hollywood last year. There are a few things I wanted to comment on...

- Three people on this list that surprised me were the Harry Potter actors (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint). I understand that they are working in a multimillion dollar franchise, but why are they personally making so much money? It's not like there is a real fear of them walking away from the film series, even when there were many movies left to make. They'd be crazy to turn down what will probably be the biggest roles they'll ever play (this is not a knock on there talent, I'm saying this merely from a statistical standpoint).

- Why isn't Johnny Depp higher on the list? He is so talented and very popular now, I expected him to rank higher.

- Where are Julia Roberts and Robin Williams? Didn't they used to be the highest paid actor and actress? Now they're not even on the list? I guess Robin Williams hasn't been in much lately, though Julia Roberts did Duplicity...

1. Michael Bay, producer-director ($125 million)

2. Steven Spielberg, producer-director ($85 million)
3. Roland Emmerich, producer-director ($70 million)
4. James Cameron, producer-director ($50 million)
5. Todd Phillips, director ($44 million)
6. Daniel Radcliffe, actor ($41 million)
7. Ben Stiller, actor ($40 million)
8. Tom Hanks, actor ($36 million)
9. J. J. Abrams, producer-director ($36 million)
10. Jerry Bruckheimer, producer ($35.5 million)
11. Tyler Perry, actor-director-producer ($32.5 million)
12. Adam Sandler, actor-producer ($31.5 million)
13. Denzel Washington, actor ($31 million)
14. Emma Watson, actor ($30 million)
15. Rupert Grint, actor ($30 million)
16. Owen Wilson, actor ($29 million)
17. Nicolas Cage, actor ($28 million)
18. Russell Crowe, actor ($28 million)
19. Cameron Diaz, actor ($27 million)
20. Brian Grazer, producer, and Ron Howard, director-producer ($25.5 million)
21. Johnny Depp, actor ($25 million)
22. Steve Carell, actor ($25 million)
23. Robert De Niro, actor ($24.5 million)
24. Sarah Jessica Parker, actor ($24 million)
25. Katherine Heigl, actor ($24 million)
26. Shawn Levy, director-producer ($23 million)
27. Oren Peli and Jason Blum, writer-director-producers ($22.5 million)
28. Robert Downey Jr., actor ($22 million)
29. George Clooney, actor ($22 million)
30. Matt Damon, actor ($22 million)
31. Reese Witherspoon, actor ($21 million)
32. Angelina Jolie, actor ($21 million)
33. Jennifer Aniston, actor ($20 million)
34. Sandra Bullock, actor ($20 million)
35. Robert Pattinson, actor ($18 million)
36. Clint Eastwood, actor-director-producer ($17 million)
37. Kristen Stewart, actor ($16 million)
38. Mark Wahlberg, actor ($16 million)
39. Shia LaBeouf, actor ($15 million)
40. Brad Pitt, actor ($13.5 million)