There's been a lot of talk about the Hollywood pay gap in recent weeks, with Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Watson, Sienna Miller and Bradley Cooper all hitting out in public at the fact that women in the film industry are paid far less than their male co-stars, even though it's been proven that films with female leads bring in more money. 

And with today being 'equal pay day', (which brings attention to the fact that women will, due to the pay gap, essentially work for free until the end of year), it's good to see some positive news surrounding women's earning potential.

That good news comes in the shape of Scarlett Johansson, who took home a fairly staggering $20 million for her role as Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron. 

That figure is dwarfed by the completely staggering $40 million that Robert Downey Jr raked in, but it is more than the other male leads in the film, including: Chris Evans ($6.9 million, Jeremy Renner ($6.1 million), Chris Hemsworth ($5.4 million), and Mark Ruffalo, ($2.8 million).

In the film series, which has grossed nearly $2 billion worldwide, Johansson plays Russian spy turned superhero Black Widow, but although her character is one of the most popular in the series, Marvel have so far refused to release a solo Black Widow while Disney (who own Marvel) also received widespread criticsm when it was revealed that Black Widow appears in far less merchandise than all other Avengers characters.

It may be difficult to sympathise with actors and actresses making millions of dollars for a film, but the hope is that if the highest earning industries can reach parity with their wages, that will set an example for other businesses and eventually fairness will be achieved.

Here's hoping.