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What will it take for A-list actresses to earn as much as actors?

In Pictures: Top Hollywood Pay--Men Vs. Women

The ninth-highest grossing movie of the year so far--with $153 million in U.S. box office sales--is Sex and the City, a film that features four leading women and a cursory supporting role for Mr. Big. The 11th highest grossing film is Mamma Mia, another estrogen fest, which has earned $144 million.

So with female-centric movies performing so well at the box office (between them, the two films have earned $980 million worldwide), why are women still earning so much less than their male counterparts?

Only two women make the list of the top 10 earning actors in Hollywood between June 2007 and June 2008. Cameron Diaz comes in fifth with $50 million for her work in solid romantic comedies like What Happens in Vegas and The Holiday. She also earned big for her voice work in the Shrek films as the far-from-helpless Princess Fiona.

But she earned a full $30 million less than Hollywood's highest earner, Will Smith, who cashes mega paychecks for films like the post-apocalyptic I Am Legend. In the same time period, Smith earned $80 million.

While women earn less than men in all fields, the difference is particularly egregious in Hollywood because of a long-standing belief that female stars are bad for box office, according to Professor Martha Lauzen of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

Some of the reasons for that belief are based in reality. A study by Lauzen showed that of the top 100 worldwide grossing films of 2007, those that starred men earned an average $101 million at the box office versus an average $54.5 million for female-starring pictures. In addition, the female-focused movies opened on fewer screens and tended to move out of theaters more quickly.

Which would seem to lend credence to the Hollywood practice of underpaying women. If their movies consistently earn less--why pay them more?

But Lauzen found that the difference in box office performance had more to do with the size of the budget than the sex of the lead movie star. When the size of the budget was held constant, films with female stars earned about the same as films with male stars.

Big action movies, like Smith's I Am Legend, typically have bigger budgets and therefore tend to earn more at the box office and star men. Female-staring movies tend to have smaller budgets.