With the massive success of nearly-Best Picture winner La La Land, its star Emma Stone also earned another top spot in 2017, as the highest earning actress in the world with a whopping $26 million income. One year has now passed since this ranking, making it time yet again for Forbes to crown another high-earning Hollywood woman. In 2018, it looks like it especially pays to be Black Widow, because Scarlett Johansson now leads the list.
According to the Forbes review, Scarlett Johansson now leads this list of highest-paid women in Hollywood. Johansson made $40.5 million between June 1, 2017 and June 1, 2018 before taxes, almost doubling Stone's 2017 earnings and rising high above any other actress in the world. Of course, considering the success of films like Avengers: Infinity War, and Isle of Dogs over the course of the last year, it's arguably not that surprising to see her once again make this type of list.
The second top spot is quite a few million below Scarlett Johansson's, as Angelina Jolie made $28 million, thanks to her upcoming reappearance as Maleficent in the Disney sequel, set to be released in 2020. Jennifer Aniston took the third spot with $19.5 million, primarily due to her huge branding endorsements with Emirates airlines, Smartwater and Aveeno. Although Jennifer Lawrence's recent films Mother! and Red Sparrow weren't big hits, she was next on the list with $18 million, as she also gears up to star in X-Men: Dark Phoenix next year. Big Little Lies actress Reese Witherspoon is the fifth highest paid actress with $16.5 million in earnings, with $7 million of the pie due to her acclaimed HBO series, since she was apparently paid $1 million per episode. Closing out the top ten list was Mila Kunis, Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett, Melissa McCarthy and Gal Gadot, respectively.
Emma Stone is notably absent from the list compared to her top spot last year, as the actress did not earn above $10 million cut- off needed to catch a high ranking. Scarlett Johansson was similarly absent from the list in 2017 when Stone was at the top but made a grand comeback on this year's since her return to the MCU in the Avengers films. Actresses Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lawrence, Melissa McCarthy, Mila Kunis, Cate Blanchett and Julia Roberts continued their ranks on the top 10 highest paid in the world from 2017 into 2018. However, Emma Watson, Charlize Theron, and Amy Adams dropped off the Forbes list this year after sharing massive success in 2017.
Although Emma Stone's earnings didn't make nearly the same ranks as Scarlett Johansson this time around, she has plenty of high-profile projects on the way, starting with her debut on a Netflix original series alongside her Superbad co-star Jonah Hill, Maniac, available September 21. Over the summer, it was also announced that Stone would reunite with her Zombieland cast for a sequel. Also, Stone will be starring in a modern-day take of Little Women with Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet all in talks to star with Greta Gerwig likely attached as director. Zombieland 2 and Little Women are currently on track for 2019 release dates. Stone will also be at the center of a Disney live-action reimagining in Cruella somewhere down the line. With all of that in mind, the versatile actress might not be far away from the highest ranks in the world for too long.
