Michael Jackson has been named the highest-earning dead celebrity of the past year.

The late Thriller hitmaker - who died in June 2009 aged 50 - has topped Forbes' annual list of the Top Earning Dead Celebrities for the second consecutive year after his estate brought in $170 million between October 2010 and October 2011 from sales of his music and his stake in the Sony/ATV catalog.

The estate of the Beat It singer - whose earnings dropped from $275 million 12 months ago - is set to take half of the profits from the Cirque du Soleil theatrical production Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, which started earlier this month.