The Rock crumbles as Mark Wahlberg earns best-paid actor title

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has lost his title as the world's highest-paid actor after being knocked into second place by Mark Wahlberg.

According to Forbes, the former wrestler earned $65m (£50.6m) over the past 12 months, with Wahlberg storming into the lead by pocketing $68m (£53m).

Wahlberg's starring roles in Transformers: The Last Knight and upcoming comedy Daddy's Home 2 helped the ex-rapper take the number one spot.

The annual list has also unearthed a huge disparity between the earnings of male and female Hollywood stars.

The combined total of $488.5m (£380m) earned by the 10 highest-paid men is nearly three times more than the $172.5m (£134m) of the 10 best-paid women.

Forbes has said the popularity of superhero and action blockbusters is partly to blame, as such box office favourites tend to have fewer leading roles for women.

Oscar winner Emma Stone was the highest-paid actress .

The 28-year-old La La Land star made £20m in pre-tax earnings in the year up to June, knocking Jennifer Lawrence off the top spot for the first time since 2015.

Lawrence's £18m fell short of her earnings in previous years, when she won an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook and earned £35m.

She has now slid down to number three after Jennifer Aniston, who made £19m with comedies Mother's Day and Office Christmas Party.

Stone recently spoke out about the gender pay gap, saying she has only achieved "parity" with male co-stars when they take pay cuts because they consider it "right and fair".

She said: "That's something that's also not discussed, necessarily - that our getting equal pay is going to require people to selflessly say: 'That's what's fair'."

Forbes claimed high earnings do not always reflect critical acclaim.

It said: "(The Last Knight) may have scored a miserable 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the lowest gross of the franchise to date, but Wahlberg need not worry - fixed compensation means he benefits even when movies don't do well."

Other male actors who made the top five include Vin Diesel (£42.4m), Adam Sandler (£39.3m) and Jackie Chan (£38.1m).

The magazine's list also revealed that Johnny Depp - who has been among the top five paid actors for years - failed to make the top 20 in the latest rankings.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star 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, Depp was named as the most overpaid actor for the second year running, as films such as Mortdecai and Alice Through The Looking Glass bombed at the box office.