Beyoncé Beats Out Oprah as Forbes’ Most Powerful Celebrity

Move over Oprah! Beyoncé has now earned the top spot on the Forbes Celebrity 100.

Queen B played 95 shows, bringing in an average $2.4 million per stop, according to Pollstar. She also dropped her most innovative album. Titled simply Beyoncé, the album hit iTunes with barely any publicity and was billed as a “visual album” because there was already a music video for each of the 14 songs.  The single “Drunk in Love” has gone platinum, selling more than 1 million copies.

But Beyoncé doesn’t stop with music — she’s built a small business empire. She earns millions endorsing companies like H&M and Pepsi. She has a line of fragrances with names like Heat, Rise and Pulse, and then there’s her clothing company House of Dereon, which features jeans, shoes and accessories. All together we estimate that Beyoncé earned $115 million between June 1, 2013 and June 1, 2014.

The singer is embarking on another big year highlighted by her first world tour with her husband, Jay Z. Their On The Run tour, which kicked off June 25 in Miami, will be short (only 20 dates are set) but lucrative for the pair, who can claim the crown as the most powerful celebrity couple in the world.

Oprah fell to No. 4 on the list after Beyonce, Lebron James and Dr. Dre. Ellen Degeneres, Jay Z, Floyd Mayweather, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Robert Downey Jr. round out the top 10. What a great year for Black people in entertainment! 

So, how is this ‘Celebrity 100′ list calculated? According to Forbes, 

We estimate earnings by talking to lawyers, producers, agents and other in-the-know folks to figure out how much over 200 celebrities earned from entertainment-related business in the past year. That includes things like music sales, upfront pay on movies and endorsement work. Our time frame for earnings this year is June 1, 2013 to June 1 2014. We don’t deduct for things like taxes, agent fees or the other expenses associated with being a celebrity.

We measure fame in a variety of ways. We count how many times each celebrity was mentioned in print, on TV and radio. We factor in a score from StarCount for social media power over 11 platforms including Twitter TWTR -0.02%, Facebook and YouTube. This year we’ve also added an impact score, similar to the one we use for our Power Womenlist. Based on reporting by our editorial staff, the number measures the impact each celebrity has on the entertainment industry and our culture overall. We put all of those numbers into an algorithm to come up with our final list. Justin Bieber had the highest ranking for social networking power but because of his low impact this year, he only ranked 33rd on our list, down from ninth last year.