Big deal: J. Law Hollywood’s best-paid female star

Success of ‘Hunger Games’ sequel puts actor ahead of Melissa McCarthy, Scarlett Johansson

Actor Jennifer Lawrence has been named Hollywood’s best-paid female star for the second year in a row. The 26-year-old earned a whopping $46 million in the last year, according to Forbes. Her earnings, while decreasing 11.5% from 2015, were bumped up by a deal wherein she took a cut of the $653.4 million The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 earned at the box office.

Lawrence, the youngest actor on the list, was followed by Melissa McCarthy. The Ghostbusters star, who was the third highest-paid female actor last year, earned $10 million more in 2016, than in 2015.

Scarlett Johansson took third place on the list, dropping from second. Her $25 million earnings are partly due to her role as Black Widow in Marvel’s Avengers films. Johansson was also recently named the US’s highest-grossing female film star of all time, in a survey conducted by industry analysis website Box Office Mojo.

The top five slots were filled out by Jennifer Aniston and Chinese star Fan Bingbing – an actor, producer and singer who topped Forbes’s China Celebrity 100 list in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Aniston, a regular in the Top 5, has seen her earnings increase by 27.3% in the last year.

Lawrence’s income from 2015 is just over half that of her male counterpart, Robert Downey Jr. The Forbes list has traditionally reignited the debate about gender pay gaps in Hollywood, with Lawrence expressing anger at the disparity in the pay of male and female stars’ through an essay, last October. Forbes’s highest-paid male actors list for 2016 is expected to be out soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2016.

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