Jennifer Lawrence, top-paid actress, still makes $30 million less than top-paid man
Hunger Games star and David O. Russell darling Jennifer Lawrence tops the Forbes list of highest-paid actresses in 2015, with an estimated $52 million in earnings from June 2014 to June 2015. Last year, Lawrence was ranked second on the list, with Sandra Bullock coming in first. But this year, Lawrence made a full million more than Bullock did when she held the top spot. (Bullock dropped to 15th this year, bringing in $8 million in estimated paydays.) This year, Scarlett Johansson comes in second with an estimated $35.5 million, followed by Melissa McCarthy with $23 million. China’s Bingbing Fan broke into the top 20 for the first time, following McCarthy with $21 million. Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts didn’t make any major blockbusters this year, but their lucrative endorsement deals keep them in the top 20.
Now, in a year where more actresses have been speaking out about Hollywood’s wage gap—partially because of payday data revealed by the Sony hacks—how exactly do the top earnings of Hollywood’s male actors stack up against the top 20 women? For some perspective, the top-paid leading man in Hollywood, Robert Downey Jr., earned an estimated $80 million this year, according to Forbes. Yep, that’s a full $28 million more than the top-paid actress. Jackie Chan came in second with $50 million, and thanks to the money-making power of Furious 7, Vin Diesel came in third with $47 million, followed by Bradley Cooper with $41.5 million. In fifth place, Adam Sandler (who continues to be overpaid) made $41 million—$24.5 million more than Aniston, who came in fifth for the ladies.
The Mary Sue combined the two lists to reveal that only two women—Lawrence and Johansson—break into the top 10 overall when you don’t separate by gender. So yeah, Jennifer Lawrence is making bank. But it’s still a lot less than the guys.