Kristen and Rob Debut on Forbes 'World's Most Powerful Celebrity' List

The third installment of “The Twilight Saga” premieres on Wednesday, but already Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are two of the world’s most powerful celebrities, according to Forbes Magazine.

The on-screen couple, who are rumored to be a pair off-screen as well, debut on the coveted list for the first time, with Robert taking spot #50 and Kristen trailing at #66.
Forbes  "The films also created three insanely popular movie stars: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Pattinson makes his debut on the Forbes Celebrity 100 this year in 50th place with $17 million in earnings. Most of that is from the Twilight films where he plays vampire Edward Cullen. But Pattinson also starred in the film Remember Me, which was a modest success at the box office, and he’ll appear in the film adaptation of Water for Elephants opposite Reese Witherspoon in 2011.

Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan, also debuts on the list this year. Because Stewart has fewer non-Twilight projects than Pattinson (her only other recent work was in the tiny film The Runaways where she starred as Joan Jett) she earned $12 million between June 2009 and June 2010, ranking 66th on our list.

Both stars were paid relatively little for their initial work on the films but they have become indispensable to the Twilight franchise. That means they can both ask for pay raises for upcoming movies. The final book, Breaking Dawn, will be split into two films, which will give Stewart and Pattinson the opportunity to double their upfront pay for their final Twilight work.

AH/ RPLife/ Forbes