The World's Highest Paid Actor May Surprise You

Dwayne Johnson has topped a Forbes magazine list of the world's highest-paid actors. 

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.

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.

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.

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