Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been named by Forbes as the world's highest-paid actor after wrestling in annual earnings of $64.5 million (£49 million).

The 44-year-old, who tweeted in response to the announcement, rocketed up the list after doubling his wage with leading roles in the eighth instalment of the Fast & Furious series, the forthcoming Baywatch movie and the recent action comedy Central Intelligence.

The wrestler-turned-actor elbowed out Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr - the actor's rich list leader for the past three years - who fell eight places to ninth.

Jackie Chan ranked second behind Johnson in 2015-16 earnings with $61m (£46.2m) followed by Matt Damon, who earned $55m (£41.6m), Tom Cruise ($53m, £40.1m) and Johnny Depp ($48m, £36.4m).

The five highest-paid actors each earned more than the world's highest-paid actress, Jennifer Lawrence, who received $46 million (£34.9m) over the same period after the final installment of the Hunger Games franchise.

The list of the highest-paid actresses, announced earlier this week, saw Lawrence followed by Hollywood stars Melissa McCarthy ($33m, £25m), Scarlett Johansson ($25m, £18.9m) and Jennifer Aniston ($21m, £15.9m) and Chinese actress Fan Bingbing ($17m, £12.9m).

Lawrence famously penned an open letter entitled "Why do I make less than my male co-stars?" after the security hack on Sony Pictures revealed she was paid a smaller fee than three of her male co-stars, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner, in the 2013 film American Hustle.

Here is Forbes' full list of the world's 20 highest-paid actors, calculated before management fees and taxes: