Scarlett Johansson appeared in four movies in 2016, making it her most prolific year of the past decade. Two of those movies secured her position as the highest grossing actor of 2016, according to Forbes: Captain America: Civil War, in which she didn't even play the title character, and Hail, Caesar!, which didn't make much in the box office but pushed her gross average above those of her two male Civil War costars, Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr. (Her other two movies, Sing and The Jungle Book, were not included by Forbes because they are animated.)
Forbes uses global ticket sales to determine the list, regardless of an actor's starring or supporting role, or pay. However, Variety reported in 2015 that Johansson makes roughly the same amount as Evans and Chris Hemsworth for starring in the Avengers franchise, even though she has yet to star in her own Black Widow spinoff. Downey is reportedly paid more.
In early 2016, Johansson told Cosmopolitan, "I make a really good living, and I'm proud to be an actress who's making as much as many of my male peers at this stage." Continuing on the note of gender equality in Hollywood, she said, "Unless I'm addressing it as a larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels a little obnoxious. It's part of a larger conversation about feminism in general." That conversation is ongoing.
Johansson's two movies brought in a $1.2 billion in ticket sales globally. The full list of top-grossing actors, four of whom are women, is below:
1. Scarlett Johansson ($1.2 billion)
2 (tie). Chris Evans ($1.15 billion), Robert Downey Jr. ($1.15 billion)
4. Margot Robbie ($1.1 billion)
5. Amy Adams ($1.04 billion)
6. Ben Affleck ($1.02 billion)
7. Henry Cavill ($870 million)
8. Ryan Reynolds ($820 million)
9. Felicity Jones ($805 million)
10. Will Smith ($775 million)
