*NEW YORK – *Scarlett Johansson leads this year’s ranking with $40.5million in pretax earnings between June 1, 2017, and June 1, 2018, makingher acting’s top-earning female lead.
Playing Black Widow in Marvel’s Avengers movies has become a lucrative rolefor Johansson, who quadruples her 2017 earnings to bump Stone from No. 1.
She’ll return onscreen for the fourth installment of the superheroconglomerate series in 2019.
“The percent of budget cost has certainly skewed heavy, particularly on theAvengers movies, to cast now, whereas maybe in the early ones it was morevisual effects or below the line,” said Kevin Feige, Marvel StudiosPresident and producer last year. “But that’s okay because [the actors] arethe best effects.”
In Second place is Angelina Jolie ($28 million) who returns to the rankingthanks largely to her upfront pay for Maleficent 2.Angelina Jolie
Jennifer Aniston stands third ($19.5 million) still earns big bucks 14years after the conclusion of Friends, making most of her money byendorsing the likes of Emirates airlines, Smartwater and Aveeno. Expect herpaycheck to skyrocket next year when production begins on her forthcomingApple series.Jennifer Anniston
Jennifer Lawrence comes Fourth with ($18 million). The Hunger Gamesactress’ two most recent movies, Mother! and Red Sparrow, underperformed atthe box office. But she still commands big bucks for her turns in the X-Menseries and a high-paying Dior contract.Jennifer Lawrence
Reese Witherspoon is on No. 5 with ($16.5 million), form her Apple seriesfrom which she is expected to receive an estimated $1.25 million perepisode.Reese Witherspoon
No.6 is Mila Kunis with ($16 million)Mila Kunis
No.7 is Julia Roberts with ($13 million)Julia Roberts
No.8 is Cate Blanchett with ($12.5 million)Cate Blanchett
No. 9 is Melissa McCarthy with ($12 million)Melissa McCarthy
And last but certainly not the least
No. 10 is wonder woman Gal Gadot with ($10 million)Gal Gadot
Together, the world’s 10 highest-paid actresses tallied a combined $186million between June 1, 2017, and June 1, 2018, before fees and taxes. Allfigures are pretax; fees for agents, managers, and lawyers are notdeducted. Overall, the cumulative total is up 16% from $172.5 million in2017.
The list examined actresses the world over, including Australian CateBlanchett (No. 8; $12.5 million) and Israeli Gal Gadot (No. 10; $10million). Gadot, whose turn as Wonder Woman catapulted her to fame, is theonly newcomer on the ranking.
“There was such an obsession in the industry that teenage boys were theprimary target box office,” said Jenkins, who helmed the smash hit and willbe directing and writing its sequel for an estimated $7 million. “Theindustry has had a hard time shifting to acknowledging that they need tohit a more diverse audience.”
Currently, female characters fill only 28.7% of all speaking roles in thefilm, according to a 2016 study. That lack of roles means that there arefewer opportunities for female stars to earn big bucks.
This year, only two women broached the $20 million mark, down from three in2017 and four in 2016. Notably absent: Amy Adams, Emma Watson, CharlizeTheron and last year’s top-ranked Emma Stone, who all failed to earn abovethe $10 million cut off for this year’s list and dropped off the ranking.