JENNIFER LAWRENCE has retained her title as the world's highest-paid actress for 2016 on the annual Forbes list.Despite her earnings being down 11.5 per cent from her $52 million pre-tax salary in 2015, she still came in millions ahead of her nearest competitor at $46 million.

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Lawrence's lion's share of the earnings, according to Forbes, was as a result of her final Hunger Games installment and a large upfront paycheck for the forthcoming Passengers, in which she will co-star with Chris Pratt, Martin Sheen and Laurence Fishburne.At 26, Lawrence is the youngest actress in the top-ten list and the only one under 30.

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Melissa McCarthy came in second place this year - pulling in $33 million pre-tax, up $10 million on 2015 - thanks to her reported eight-figure salary for Ghostbusters, beating Scarlett Johansson, who earned $25 million pre tax, into third place.Earlier this year, Johansson became the highest-grossing actress of all time, amassing a domestic box-office revenue of $3.3 billion across her career to date.

The rest of the top ten and their pre-tax earnings are as follows:

1

Jennifer Aniston - $21 million

2

Fan Bingbing - $17 million

3

Charlize Theron - $16.5 million

4

Amy Adams - $13.5 million

5

Julia Roberts - $12 million

6

Mila Kunis - $11 million

7

Deepika Padukone - $10 million

Familiar names that just missed the $10 million cut-off point include Kristen Wiig, Renée Zellweger and Cate Blanchett, while those who are absent when comparing the 2015 list are Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart, Reese Witherspoon and Cameron Diaz.

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Inevitably this week's list will draw comparisons with the stars' male counterparts, compounded by Forbes's findings while researching the 2016 list:90 per cent of the world's highest-paid actresses supplement their acting earnings with proceeds from campaigns and endorsements; female characters fill only 28.7 per cent of all speaking roles in film; and women were shown partially or fully nude 27.5 per cent of the time, three times as much as men.The real comparison, however, will happen tomorrow, when the 2016 highest-paid actors list is revealed.