Jennifer Lawrence sets record for highest grossing action movie heroine as The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen

Things are starting to look up again after all those nude photo leaks

Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, as played by Jennifer Lawrence, is a hero for girls and boys

It hasn't been a great week for Jennifer Lawrence, what with all these nude photo leaks, but she has received some good news too – the actress has been named the highest grossing action movie heroine in the 2015 Guinness World Records book.

The 24-year-old's brave Hunger Games character, Katniss Everdeen, helped earn the first two franchise movies £928 million worldwide.

The second film, Catching Fire, grossed £520 million at the global box office to become the highest grossing post-apocalyptic movie ever (a niche title, but still).

Katniss, the lead character in Suzanne Collins' bestselling novel series, becomes a symbol of rebellion against dystopian oppression in the fictional nation of Panem.

Two further Hunger Games instalments are on their way to the big screen, Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2, meaning that Katniss could be holding onto her record for some time yet.

Despite Katniss' success, Lawrence missed out in the highest paid Hollywood actress stakes after Forbes' list saw Sandra Bullock emerge on top.

Bullock’s estimated earnings of $51 million in the past year can be largely attributed to Gravity, which took $715 million worldwide and won seven Oscars.

Sandra Bullock is the highest paid actress after Gravity (Rex)

Lawrence was named the second highest paid with $34 million, but Hollywood's women still earn less than their male counterparts.

The top ten financially-successful actors brought in $419 million in total, while the top ten actresses earned just over half of that sum at $226 million.

The subject of leading Hollywood women has been under much debate of late. Cate Blanchett drew upon the issue during her Best Actress acceptance speech at the 2013 Oscars, arguing that some people are still "foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the centre are niche experiences".

"They are not," she said to cheers. "Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people."

Cate Blanchett speaks about films with leading females at the Oscars (Getty Images)

Elsewhere, Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain has demanded a Scarlett Johansson superhero movie. "I don't understand it, why is it taking so long for this?" she told The Wrap. "This woman clearly shows that people want to go see her in movies. She shows that she kicks ass, she’s a great actress. To me, it’s a no brainer."

Then there's Marvel Comics, which announced in July that hammer-wielding superhero Thor is to change gender and become a woman in a move to attract more female fans to the franchise.