Forbes rolled out its annual list of the highest-paid actresses in the world this week, and sitting at the top of the ranking this year was none other than Katniss Everdeen.



"Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence easily outranked the rest of the list, banking a whopping $52 million over the past 12 months. That total comes thanks to her role in that popular YA franchise, as well as her continuing involvement in the "X-Men" series, though Forbes notes that Lawrence also has a lucrative contract with fashion brand Dior that pads her already-impressive income.



It doesn't take an eagle-eyed observer to notice, though, that Lawrence's total -- and the rest of the women on Forbes's Top 18 list -- don't come close to matching the money-making of their male counterparts. Lawrence, for example, still lags well behind top-earning actor Robert Downey Jr., who banked $80 million in 2015, and all the top-earning women on Forbes's actresses list earned a combined $660 million less than the men on Forbes's Highest-Paid Actors ranking.



That disparity comes thanks to Hollywood's continuing issue of a lack of roles for females, though the problem is also rampant in other movie-making industries around the globe. Forbes included international movie stars on its lists for the first time this year, and while several Bollywood stars broke into the top rankings on the actors' side, only one international star -- Bingbing Fan, from China, who came in at number four -- cracked the entire female list. (Forbes also cuts off its rankings at the $6 million mark, meaning that its list of highest-paid actors is larger than the list of highest-paid actresses by default.)



It's certainly a depressing difference, but the women who did manage to score some big paydays should certainly be celebrated. Keep it up, ladies -- and let's hope there's more where that came from in the future.



Here's Forbes's full list:



1. Jennifer Lawrence, $52 million

2. Scarlett Johansson, $35.5 million

3. Melissa McCarthy, $23 million

4. Bingbing Fan, $21 million

5. Jennifer Aniston, $16.5 million

6. Julia Roberts, $16 million

7. Angelina Jolie, $15 million

8. Reese Witherspoon, $15 million

9. (TIE) Anne Hathaway and Kristen Stewart, $12 million

11. Cameron Diaz, $11 million

12. Gwyneth Paltrow, $9 million

13. (TIE) Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, and Sandra Bullock, $8 million

16. (TIE) Emma Stone and Mila Kunis, $6.5 million

18. Natalie Portman, $6 million







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