A gender pay gap persists in Hollywood, even among elite earners: The top 10 actors banked a cumulative $488.5 million–nearly three times the $172.5 million combined total of the 10 top-earning women. While only three actresses made more than $20 million in 12 months, 16 actors broached the mark.
This pay disparity is due, in part, to roles: There are simply fewer main female characters in the superhero movies and blockbusters that pay the sizeable backend profits that result in leading men’s large paydays, or the franchise sequels that permit aggressive negotiation for future installments. According to a 2016 study, women comprise just 28.7% of all speaking roles in movies.
In order to visualize the difference in paychecks, we combined our lists of highest-paid actors and actresses. Emma Stone, who was this year’s top-ranked actress, lands at No. 15 when stacked up with the men. Mark Wahlberg, the highest-paid actor, made more than 2.5 times her $26 million pretax take-home. Melissa McCarthy, ranked No. 4 among actresses with $18 million, ties for No. 21 with Chris Evans.
Earnings estimates are based on data from Nielsen, ComScore, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as interviews with industry insiders. All figures are pretax and scored between June 1, 2016, and June 1, 2017; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted.
Full list:
1. Mark Wahlberg, $68 million
2. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, $65 million
3. Vin Diesel, $54.5 million
4. Adam Sandler, $50.5 million
5. Jackie Chan, $49 million
6. Robert Downey, Jr., $48 million
7. Tom Cruise, $43 million
8. Shah Rukh Khan, $38 million
9. Salman Khan, $37 million
10. Akshay Kumar, $35.5 million
11. Chris Hemsworth, $31.5 million
12. Tom Hanks, $31 million
13. Samuel L. Jackson, $30.5 million
14. Ryan Gosling, $29 million
15. Emma Stone, $26 million
16. Jennifer Aniston, $25.5 million
17. Jennifer Lawrence, $24 million
18. Ryan Reynolds, $21.5 million
19. Matt Damon, $21 million
20. Jeremy Renner, $19 million
21. Chris Evans, $18 million
21. Melissa McCarthy, $18 million
23. Chris Pratt, $17 million
24. Mila Kunis, $15.5 million
25. Emma Watson, $14 million
25. Emma Watson, $14 million
27. Mark Ruffalo, $13 million
28. Cate Blanchett, $12 million
29. Julia Roberts, $12 million
30. Amy Adams, $11.5 million
Source – Forbes