Jennifer Lawrence is maintaining her title as Hollywood's hottest acting property as she's just been named the world's highest paid actress of the year by Forbes.
2015 may seem like it's been a quiet year for J-Law film releases, but the in-demand thesp has still managed to outdo runner-up Scarlett Johansson by $16.5 million, earning an estimated $52 million (pre tax) in 12 months. Being the star of mega film franchises The Hunger Games and* X Men* clearly pays.
“Jennifer Lawrence has been able to negotiate very favorable deals on the back end of the Hunger Games films,” said Forbes’s Natalie Robehmed. “No other actress could play Katniss Everdeen, and for that reason, she can command a substantial cut of profits.”
Scarlett brought home a total of $35.5 million thanks to lead roles in films including Avengers: Age of Ultron and sci-fi flick Lucy, and all while balancing becoming a first-time mum to daughter Rose Dororthy in Autumn 2014. Melissa McCarthy came in third place with earnings of $23 million thanks to roles in films including Spy.
Only one non US-born star made the list - Chinese actress Bingbing Fan,who you may recognise for her role in *X-Men: Days of Future Past, *came in fourth with $21 million.
If ranked in a list of top 15 male and females, Jennifer would have made second place to Robert Downey Jr's whopping $80 million, whilw Scarlett would rank eighth. However, given the male-female disparity in earnings none of the other top 15 female earners would have made the list - further conformation that Hollywood's gender pay gap is far from being closed. Let's hope the success of both Jennifer and Scarlett leads the way for a more even keel in next year's chart.
**Here's the full list of Forbes top 15 highest earning actresses from June 2014 to June 2015 **