For a second year running Shia LaBeouf has topped Forbes’ “Best Actor for The Buck” list.

According to the publication studios saw an $81 return for every dollar they spent on the 24 year-old, making him the best value actor in Hollywood.

The huge success of Alice in Wonderland, which grossed over $1 billion, helped put Anne Hathaway into second place. The star offering a $64 return for every dollar she is paid.

Whilst, Daniel Radcliffe was the highest placing Brit on the list, coming in third, with a $61 return.

That bronze, silver and gold all went to young actors is hardly surprising. These young stars are all (relatively) low paid and therefore provide a better rate of return than their older, higher paid peers.

As they mature, and their successes continue, they will be able to increase their quota per film. This might place them out of the list unless they can continue to make successful (read: lucrative) films.

It may be hard, but it can be done. Johnny Depp continues to be one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors because his films do so well and he continues to offer a great return on investment ($18).

Although the list is a good indicator of star power, and will no doubt help each actor in negotiating their next fee, it is slightly misleading to assume direct causation between an actor and a film success.

LaBeouf tops the list primarily due to the inclusion of high grossing films like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which made an estimated $790 million in 2008) and Transformers 2 (which earned $833 million in 2009), however, the actor wasn’t the main reason these films were successful.

Indy 4 was the hugely anticipated continuation of the much adored Indiana Jones franchise, which already had huge Hollywood heavyweights behind it (George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford), whilst Transformers 2 had, well, giant robots fighting.

Forbes’ has yet to release their counterpart list “Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actors”, which funny-man/perennial man-child Will Ferrell topped last year.

For full details visit Forbes’ website.