Gregory B. Maffei won the executive-pay sweepstakes during a year when his investors also fared well.

Mr. Maffei, the leader of Liberty Media Corp., enjoyed total direct pre-tax compensation of $87.1 million last year, four times his 2008 package and enough to land him atop the rankings in The Wall Street Journal's latest CEO pay survey, which includes all 456 of the biggest U.S. public companies.

The recent survey, which covered companies with annual revenue of more than $4 billion that filed proxies between Oct. 1, 2009 and Sept. 30, 2010, expanded a smaller analysis completed in April.

The expanded sample, collected by Philadelphia management-consulting firm Hay Group, includes more highly paid media chiefs as well as some newly appointed CEOs, who often enjoy one-time boosts from signing bonuses or payments to make them whole for stock and stock options they left behind. It also includes companies like Oracle Corp. , that pay well but close their fiscal years later.