Jennifer Lawrence named world's highest-paid actress

Jennifer Lawrence has been revealed as the world's highest paid actress by Forbes. Photo/AP

Jennifer Lawrence has been named the highest-paid actress for the second year running.

The 26-year-old actress has managed to retain her title on financial bible Forbes' annual list after cashing in a whopping US$46 million (NZ$63m) in pre-tax earnings in the financial period June 2015-June 2016.

However, the Silver Linings Playbook star has seen an 11.5 per cent fall in earnings compared to last year's US$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 US$13 million more than Melissa McCarthy, who ranked second place of Forbes' annual list with pretax earnings of US$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 US$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 US$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 US$21 million, and Fan Bingbing, the only Chinese actress to make the ranking who earned US$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 per cent 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.

Forbes magazine's 2016 list of highest-earning actresses

1. Jennifer Lawrence, US$46 million
2. Melissa McCarthy, US$33 million
3. Scarlett Johansson, US$25 million
4. Jennifer Aniston, US$21 million
5. Fan Bingbing, US$17 million
6. Charlize Theron, US$16.5 million
7. Amy Adams, US$13.5 million
8. Julia Roberts, US$12 million
9. Mila Kunis, US$11 million
10. Deepika Padukone, US$10 million

- Bang! Showbiz