The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence has been crowned queen of the highest earning actresses for the second year running.
A vocal opponent of the gender pay gap in Hollywood, Jennifer brought in an estimated US$46 million in the last 12 months, according to Forbes magazine.
That haul was largely due to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and X-Men: Apocalypse.
Another boon to Jennifer’s pre-tax earnings came from a massive up front fee for her upcoming sci-fi flick Passengers, says Forbes.
Jennifer discovered she was being short-changed on the salary front when an email leaked in 2015 about the disparity in earnings with her American Hustle co-stars.
“I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself,” Jennifer wrote in an scathing essay for Lenny at the time.
“I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need.
“At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realised every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled’.”
Number two on the Forbes list is Melissa McCarthy, who earned $33 million this year, including an estimated eight-figure upfront fee for Ghostbusters.
At 45, Melissa’s continued rise is clearly trackable by the numbers: Her pay cheque leapt about US$10 million over 2015. Scarlett Johansson was the world’s third highest-paid actress, with US$25 million; she reportedly made $17.5 million alone for her role in the upcoming manga movie Ghost in the Shell.
But she and many other women on the list boost their acting earnings with endorsements: Scarlett with a Dolce & Gabbana deal; number four Jennifer Aniston, who made $21 million this year, with endorsements for Aveeno, Smartwater, Emirates airlines, and Living Proof hair care.
Forbes is set to release its list of the highest-paid actors in the world later the same week, and teases that there remains a pay gap between the men and women in the industry: four women in the top 10 made $20 million or more, compared to 18 men.
The Forbes Top 10 Highest-Paid Actresses (in US$):
- Jennifer Lawrence, $46 million
- Melissa McCarthy, $33 million
- Scarlett Johansson, $25 million
- Jennifer Aniston, $21 million
- Fan Bingbing, $17 million
- Charlize Theron, $16.5 million
- Amy Adams, $13.5 million
- Julia Roberts, $12 million
- Mila Kunis, $11 million
- Deepika Padukone, $10 million
