Murphy named 'most over-paid actor'

A recent study has named Eddie Murphy as the most over-paid actor in Hollywood.

The 51-year-old actor - whose recent films 'Imagine That', 'A Thousand Words' and 'Meet Dave' were all labelled flops - but he continues to be paid a huge amount of money to star in movies.

According to Forbes magazine, for every $1 Murphy was paid for his last three movies, they returned an estimated average of $2.30.

His movie 'Tower Heist' which was released last year also failed to wow audiences and earned just over double its budget of $75m (€57.4m).

Earlier this year, Murphy revealed he is in talks to make a 'Beverly Hills Cop' TV show.

One of the comedian and actor's best loved roles was as wise-cracking detective Axel Foley in the three action/comedy films of the late 80s and he is working on bringing him back.

He said: "What I'm trying to do with 'Beverly Hills Cop' now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley's son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit.

"I'd do the pilot, show up here and there."

According to the magazine, a movie has to earn twice its production budget in ticket sales, plus the millions spent on marketing, to be considered a financial success.

Katherine Heigl came second in the list of most overpaid stars as her most recent film 'One For The Money' earned just $37m (€28.3m) and cost $40m (€30.6m) to make.

Reese Witherspoon - who recently gave birth to her third child - also failed to lure audiences to the cinema this year.

Other actors on the list include Sandra Bullock and Jack Black.