Jennifer Lawrence named highest paid actress

The 26-year-old actress has managed to retain her title on financial bible Forbes' annual list after cashing in a whopping $46 million in pre-tax earnings in the financial period June 2015-June 2016. However, the 'Silver Linings Playbook' star has seen an 11.5% fall in earnings compared to last year's $52 million, but she's still managed to stay top of the payroll leaderboard.

The blonde beauty - whose earnings this year come largely from both the last instalment of the 'Hunger Games' series and a mammoth upfront payment for forthcoming movie 'Passengers' - earned $13 million more than Melissa McCarthy, who ranked second place of Forbes' annual list with pretax earnings of $33 million.

The 45-year-old actress' income is nothing to be sniffed at though, as she's managed to pull up her pay packet by $10 million since last year, a feat which is thanks to a reported eight-figure sum from 'Ghostbusters'.

Scarlett Johansson, 31, came in at third place with a total of $25 million, thanks in part to her involvement in both 'The Jungle Book' and 'Captain America: Civil War'. Finishing off the top five were Jennifer Aniston on $21 million, and Fan Bingbing, the only Chinese actress to make the ranking who earned $17 million.

Whilst the actresses who made the list can boast large earnings, the pay gap with male actors still exists, and a reported 90% of the top-paid actresses supplement their on-screen earnings with endorsements.

Aniston's number four ranking was largely supplemented by advertising campaigns with Emirates Airlines, Smartwater, and Aveeno. Second-placed McCarthyalso supplemented her on-screen earnings through her all sizes clothing line.

She said: "I started to think if I could do anything to build women up rather than the constant tear down I'm going to do it," Only four actresses pocketed more than $20 million - up from three in 2015 - compared to 18 of the world's top male actors.