Unsurprisingly, Oscar winner Emma Stone has topped Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s highest paid actresses, but it’s the number two slot that may come as a bit of a shock.

With earnings of $US26 million ($A33 million) before tax over the last 12 months, 28-year-old Stone outranked last year’s list-topper Jennifer Lawrence, who is also a good friend of Stone’s.

Lawrence, 27, topped the list in both 2015 and 2016, but fell to third spot this year following the end of the lucrative Hunger Games franchise, still earning an impressive $US24 million.

But it’s the actress in the second spot who is perhaps the most surprising: 48-year-old Friends star Jennifer Aniston, who hasn’t appeared in a major film since early last year.

Rather, it’s Aniston’s endorsement deals with brands like airline Emirates, skincare company Aveeno and bottled water company Smartwater, that saw her earning a whopping $US25.5 million over the last year.

Her deal with Emirates, for which she appeared in a sleek advertisement for the airline’s A380, is worth a reported $US5 million alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz_qZQbiZuA

Of course, there’s also Aniston’s memorable role as Rachel in the long-running sit-com Friends, a show which continues to pull in an estimated $US1 billion a year for Warner Bros through syndication, despite ending in 2004.

That’s a pay cheque of $US20 million each a year for its six stars, according to USA Today.

Both Lawrence and Stone have been campaigners for equal pay in Hollywood. In 2015, Lawrence wrote an opinion piece titled ‘Why do I get paid less than my male co-stars?’.

“It’s hard for me to speak about my experience as a working woman because I can safely say my problems aren’t exactly relatable,” Lawrence wrote, adding that she was frustrated at herself for giving up the fight for equal pay on a film set “too early”.

“I 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).”

Earlier this year, Stone revealed her male co-stars take pay cuts so she can have parity with them because they believe it’s “right and fair”.