Mark Wahlberg named world's highest-paid actor in 2017

LOS ANGELES, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Mark Wahlberg soared to the top of the world's highest paid actors on an annual Forbes magazine list that highlighted a huge disparity between male and female Hollywood stars.

Wahlberg, 46, earned an estimated $68 million in 2017 thanks to his pay days for movies "Daddy's Home 2" and "Transformers: The Last Knight", according to the Forbes ranking released on Tuesday.

The rapper-turned-actor knocked 2016 leader Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson into second place, with estimated 2017 earnings of $65 million.

Image: Getty

Forbes estimates earnings, before taxes and management fees, from movies, TV and commercial endorsements.

The Forbes list again highlighted Hollywood's gender pay gap. Last week, the magazine named "La La Land" Oscar winner Emma Stone as the world's highest paid actress with an estimated 2017 take of $26 million.

Forbes said the 10 highest-paid leading men earned a combined $488.5 million before tax in its June 2016-June 2017 scoring period, nearly three times more than the $172.5 million earned by the top 10 scoring women.

Forbes attributed the disparity to the prevalence of superhero and action blockbusters that earn big at the box office for Hollywood studios but tend to have fewer leading roles for women.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp, who for years has been among the top five paid actors, did not make the top 20 this year, Forbes said. Depp is currently embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with his former business managers who have detailed what they describe as his lavish spending habits.

Last December, before the May 2017 release of "Pirates of the Caribbean; Dead Men Tell No Tales," Forbes named Depp the most overpaid actor for a second straight year as films such as "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "Mortdecai" did not fare well.

Three of Bollywood's biggest stars - Shah Rukh Khan ($38 million), Salman Khan ($37 million) and Akshay Kumar ($35.5 million) - took the 8th, 9th and 10th places on the Forbes list, respectively.