Emma Stone is Hollywood's highest-paid actress now, with $26 million before taxes, according to Forbes magazine, while last year’s best paid actress, Jennifer Lawrence, is practically on her way to the poor house with just $24 million.
Stone is still riding the wave of her Academy Award-winning performance in the movie "La La Land," which pulled in $445.3 million at box offices around the world, Forbes noted.
In Out magazine last month, Stone said that despite her success, she still needed help from her male co-stars to make the same amount of money they do for movies.
"In my career so far, I've needed my male co-stars to take a pay cut so that I may have parity with them," Stone told the magazine while promoting her upcoming movie "Battle of the Sexes," in which she portrays Billie Jean King.
"And that's something they do for me because they feel it's what's right and fair. That's something that's also not discussed, necessarily — that our getting equal pay is going to require people to selflessly say, 'That's what’s fair.' If my male co-star, who has a higher quote than me but believes we are equal, takes a pay cut so that I can match him, that changes my quote in the future and changes my life."
Stone replaced Lawrence with the help of paychecks for her upcoming movie "Mother" and "Red Sparrow," and her endorsement contract with Dior, noted Forbes.
In 2015, Lawrence brought up the issue of gender pay equality in Hollywood as well, writing an essay in Lena Dunham's website the Lenny Letter.
"Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper all fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves," Lawrence said of her "American Hustle" co-stars then. "If anything, I'm sure they were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share."
Jennifer Aniston slipped in at second place between Stone and Lawrence, making $25.5 million over the past 12 months, Forbes said. Along with her upcoming movie "The Yellow Birds," the former "Friends" actress is pulling in endorsements from Emirates airlines, Smartwater and Aveeno, while benefiting from the sale of hair-care line Living Proof, which she had a stake in.
Rounding out the top five were Melissa McCarthy, who earned $18 million, and Mila Kunis, who made $15.5 million. Emma Watson, who starred in this year's live action "Beauty and the Beast," was sixth at $14 million.