World's highest paid actor revealed as Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson

Dwayne Johnson has topped a Forbes magazine list of the world's highest-paid actors. Yes, The Rock is No. 1.

With an estimated 2016 payday of $64.5 million (NZ$88.3m), the wrestler-turned-actor knocked Robert Downey Jr off the top spot and more than doubled his 2015 earnings, largely thanks to his action comedy, Central Intelligence.

The 44-year-old star, known as "The Rock" during his wrestling career, also collected advance fees from the eighth instalment of the popular Fast and Furious racing movie franchise.

Johnson, who is of both Nova Scotian and Samoan decent, spent a part of his childhood living in New Zealand, in the suburb of Grey Lynn in Auckland with his mother's side of the family, attending Richmond Road Primary School before returning back to the U.S with his parents.

The Forbes annual list again highlighted the pay gap between men and women in Hollywood.

Earlier this week the magazine named Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence the world's highest paid actress for a second straight year, with an estimated 2016 take of US$46 million.

Forbes said 18 actors banked more than US$20 million in its June 2015-June 2016 scoring period, compared with four actresses.

Jackie Chan, who has not had a big US box office hit for years, but is a prolific actor and producer in the burgeoning Chinese entertainment market, was second on the list with $US61 million.

Matt Damon came in third with US$55 million, largely due to the success of his 2015 space film The Martian.

Iron Man Downey fell from top spot, despite reprising his comic book hero role in Captain America: Civil War. He ranked eighth, tied with Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, with US$33 million.

Harrison Ford crept onto the list for the first time since 2009 thanks to his return as Han Solo in the blockbuster new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie and video game.

Ford, who also is to reprise his role as adventurer Indiana Jones in 2019, ranked 20th with earnings of about US$15 million.

Forbes estimates earnings, before taxes and management fees, from movies, TV and commercial endorsements.

The rest of the Top 10 were:

Tom Cruise: US$53 million
Johnny Depp: US$48 million
Ben Affleck: US$43 million
Vin Diesel: US$35 million
Shah Rukh Khan: US$33 million
Robert Downey Jr: US$33 million
Kumar Akshay: US$31 million

- AAP