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This year鈥檚 highest-grossing actor was a woman, but many of the industry鈥檚 top paychecks are still falling into the hands of men.

Scarlett Johansson topped 2016鈥檚 list of high-grossing actors, with her films raking in $1.2 billion at ticket booths around the globe. She was closely followed by Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., whose movies tied them for second place at $1.15 billion, and Margot Robbie and Amy Adams, whose films grossed just more than $1 billion.

To compile , Forbes added up the 2016 global ticket sales of top actors鈥� films released in 2016, using data from Box Office Mojo as of Tuesday. Animated films were excluded, and only those actors who were top-billed or had the most screen time were included.

But the actors ranked among the top 10 highest grossing stars weren鈥檛 necessarily : Ms. Johansson didn鈥檛 rank among the 10 highest paid actors, a list that was topped by Dwayne Johnson, Jackie Chan, and Matt Damon. That group boasted only two women, Jennifer Lawrence and Melissa McCarthy, highlighting the discrepancies in pay between female and male actors in Hollywood.

The issue of equal pay for women has come to the forefront in politics and society, with advocates highlighting the millions of dollars in losses annually as women continue to make about 80 cents on the dollar compared to men.

In Hollywood, where female actors often pull in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars each year, the gap has been less evident. But some of Hollywood鈥檚 biggest players have shone a light on the disparity, calling on filmmakers and producers to close the gap and set an example for women struggling to earn equal pay in other industries.

Jennifer Lawrence kickstarted the debate last year, taking action in a public essay after she discovered that her male costars made more money than she did for the same films.

鈥淚t's hard for me to speak about my experience as a working woman because I can safely say my problems aren't exactly relatable. When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people ...聽I didn't get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself,鈥澛燣awrence explained in the piece for Lena Dunham鈥檚 鈥淟enny鈥� newsletter.

She added: 鈥淚 failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn't want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don't need. (I told you it wasn't relatable, don't hate me).鈥�

Since then, other female actors such as Robyn Wright from 鈥淗ouse of Cards鈥� and many time Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep have joined the conversation, hoping that their complaints and successes can reverberate across all income levels to help women working in retail or office jobs to achieve fair pay for equal work as well.

Many hoped the trend would change, at least in California, this year. At the beginning of 2016, a law mandating companies must pay women equal salaries for work that is 鈥渟ubstantially similar鈥� to that of men, but not just the same, went into effect.

In September, legislators championed the law鈥檚 success, and moved to create additional provisions that would further protect working women and also incorporate people of color into the fold.

Still, workers can鈥檛 ask for what they don鈥檛 know they鈥檙e missing, and much like Ms. Lawrence, women often don鈥檛 know if their paycheck is smaller than the men who work alongside them.

鈥淭here鈥檚 still a lot of fear out there, still ,鈥� Jennifer Reisch, legal director for the San Francisco group Equal Rights Advocates, told the Los Angeles Times in September. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult for a single person acting all by herself to discover that she鈥檚 being paid less and do something about it.鈥�

The two Forbes lists showed other discrepancies, with only Ben Affleck appearing on both. That could mean there鈥檚 an overall gap between how well a movie does at the box office and how much the films鈥� actors are paid, but the stark contrast between high-earning men and women remains.

Some actresses, such as Emma Stone, say they鈥檝e received equal pay for projects, but note that the industry has yet to become a reliable source for equality among men and women. 聽

鈥淚've been lucky enough to ,鈥澛爏he commented before correcting herself. 鈥淣ot 'lucky.' I've had pay equal to my male costars in the past few films.鈥澛爏he in a recent interview with Vogue. 鈥淏ut our industry ebbs and flows in a way that's like, 'How much are you bringing into the box office?' 'How much are you the draw or is the other person the draw?'聽鈥�

For these actresses, equal pay isn鈥檛 about adding more millions to their hefty bank accounts, but about garnering respect and highlighting the ways in which inequality persists, and they鈥檙e taking their case to public platforms.

鈥淭o every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else鈥檚 equal rights,鈥澛燩atricia Arquette, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, said in her acceptance speech last year. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.鈥�