Reese Witherspoon

$15 million Reese Witherspoon has had a phenomenal run of late, cop comedy flop Hot Pursuit not withstanding. Frustrated by a shortage of rich roles for women, Witherspoon formed a production company with producer Bruna Papadena to buy the rights to novels with strong female leads. First up was 2013s Gone Girl ($368 million worldwide gross), which the duo coproduced, and the twotime Oscar nominated Wild ($52 million worldwide gross), which Witherspoon produced and starred in. A slew of new production and acting credits help her rejoin the list since dropping off in 2011.