Jennifer Lawrence, 25, brought in $52 million — pre-tax — landing her at the top spot of Forbes‘ highest-paid actress list. According to Variety, Lawrence occupied the list’s No. 2 spot last year and her earnings for the year are $1 million greater than last year’s list highest-paid actress, Sandra Bullock. The latter declined to the No. 15 spot on Forbes‘ list, after earning $8 million for the scoring period. As well, Lawrence’s earnings ranked $16.5 million more than Scarlett Johansson, whose $35.5 million earnings landed her at the list’s No. 2 spot. Melissa McCarthy, who ranked third with $23 million, is accordingly the only other actress on Forbes‘ list who earned over $20 million during the scoring period.
Prior to taxes and fees, those on Forbes’ highest-paid actresses list earned a combined $281 million, according to Forbes, which is $660 million less than the 34 World’s Highest-Paid Actors, who reportedly banked a cumulative $941 million. Notable is also the fact that only four actresses on the list made over $20 million; whereas, 21 actors on the counterpart list earned over $20 million.
While the actresses on the Forbes list are well-known and clearly recognizable, the differentiation in pay between actors and actresses in Hollywood continues to be immensely exposed and questioned. Lawrence, while the highest-paid actress for the period, brought much-needed attention to the pay gap earlier this year, after it was revealed that she and her female American Hustle costar received a lower cut of profits than their male counterparts. For American Hustle, the actresses (Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams) earned 7% of the profits; whereas, the film’s actors (Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner) accordingly received 9% of the profits.
According to Forbes, the publication “measures earnings before subtracting management fees and taxes” and generates their figures based on data from Nielsen, Box Office Mojo, and IMDB. To further obtain information, Forbes also factors in information from interviews with agents, managers, lawyers, and the stars themselves.
The top 18 world’s highest-paid actresses, which was revealed on CBS This Morning, is as follows:
Jennifer Lawrence: $52,000,000
Scarlett Johansson: $35,500,000
Melissa McCarthy: $23,000,000
Bingbing Fan: $21,000,000
Jennifer Aniston: $16,500,000
Julia Roberts: $16,000,000
Angelina Jolie: $15,000,000
Reese Witherspoon: $15,000,000
Anne Hathaway: $12,000,000
Kristen Stewart: $12,000,000
Cameron Diaz: $11,000,000
Gwyneth Paltrow: $9,000,000
Meryl Streep: $8,000,000
Amanda Seyfried: $8,000,000
Sandra Bullock: $8,000,000
Emma Stone: $6,500,000
Mila Kunis: $6,500,000
Natalie Portman: $6,000,000
