The Top 5 Highest Paid Actresses in Hollywood

5. Charlize Theron ($16.5 million)
Theron is an unstoppable force as both an actress and an action hero. She had played a supporting actor for years before she finally landed the award-winning role of Aileen Wuornos in the dramatic biopic Monster (2003), well deserved for uglying herself up for such a divergent role. Her career has exploded since, most notably as a leading talent in the action pictures of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Fate of the Furious (2017) and Atomic Blonde (2017). Having starred in two such big blockbuster franchises of Mad Max and Fast and the Furious, rumors are up in the air with great anticipation as to whether or not she’ll return to these series. She is currently being filmed as the lead for the new Jason Reitman picture Tully (2018).

4. Jennifer Aniston ($21 million)
Aniston is a force on the big screen. After kicking off her career with the 90s TV classic, Friends, she went on to score strong supporting roles in the Mike Judge comedy Office Space (1999) and the animated adventure The Iron Giant (1999) before becoming a leading talent in Along Came Polly (2003) and Rumor Has It (2004). She has since had a fruitful career in many comedies, her most noteworthy pictures being Horrible Bosses (2011), We’re The Millers (2013) and She’s Funny That Way (2014). Her most recent roles were in the ensemble comedies of Mother’s Day (2016) and Office Christmas Party (2016).

3. Scarlett Johansson ($25 million)
Johansson has been an actress from as far back as her childhood, having acted in the Rob Reiner comedy North (1994) alongside an equally young Elijah Wood. Since then, she has been a hard working actress of many roles, appearing in everything from independent comedies (Ghost World) to award-worthy romantic comedies (Lost in Translation) to period dramas (Girl With a Pearl Earring). But it wasn’t until Iron Man 2 (2009) when she finally struck gold as the hero of Black Widow, going on to reprise the role in the other Marvel blockbusters of Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Captain America: Civil War (2016). Outside of the superhero ensemble, she was recently the star of the sci-fi remake Ghost in the Shell (2017).

2. Melissa McCarthy ($33 million)
While McCarthy first started as a regular TV actor on Gilmore Girls and Mike & Molly, her comedic talents quickly propelled her into being one of the top comedic talents in Hollywood movies. Though she had acted in a few smaller films, she broke out as a leading funny lady in Paul Feig’s ensemble comedy Bridesmaids (2011). Not only has she continued as a leading star in Feig’s other productions of The Heat (2013) and Spy (2015), but she has also written her own comedies that she’s starred in with Tammy (2014) and The Boss (2016). Her most recent role was one of the four leads in the all-female remake Ghostbusters (2016).

1. Jennifer Lawrence ($46 million)
Having led the highly successful Hunger Games franchise for four films and the staple mutant of Mystique in the recent X-Men movies, Jennifer Lawrence is one of the biggest and most expensive names in Hollywood. Her success with those two blockbuster franchises led to her starring in the award-nominated films American Hustle (2013) and Joy (2015), both directed by David O. Russell no less. Her most recent work was starring in the sci-fi blockbuster Passengers (2016) opposite the equally attractive and expensive Chris Pratt. She will be starring in the upcoming horror film Mother! (2017) and the spy thriller Red Sparrow (2018), as well as reprising the role of Mystique once more for X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2018).