Vin Diesel beats The Rock to top spot as highest grossing actor of 2017

Vin Diesel was the highest grossing actor this year Credit: PA

Vin Diesel has beaten his Fast And Furious co-star Dwayne Johnson to be named this year's top grossing actor.

The action star's latest addition to the xXx franchise - xXx: Return Of Xander Cage - helped secure him the number one spot.

It topped the $1.2 billion (£897 million) that The Fate Of The Furious raked in worldwide to see Vin Diesel's films make 1.6 billion dollars (£1.2 billion) combined in 2017, according to Forbes.

The Rock, on the other had, was weighed down by Baywatch, which flopped at the Box Office and meant his films this year only pulled in $1.5 billion dollars (£1.12 billion).

His latest effort, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, is yet to come out in cinemas.

The Rock came in just under if Fast and Furious co-star Credit: PA

According to Forbes, the top five highest grossing actors this year were:

  • Vin Diesel - $1.6bn

  • Dwayne Johnson - $1.5bn

  • Gal Gadot - $1.4

  • Emma Watson - $1.3bn

  • Johnny Depp - $1.1bn

With Wonder Woman and Justice League under her belt, Gal Gadot made it in at number three.

Britain's Emma Watson came in at number four having stepped out of Hermione's shadow to star as Belle in Disney's live-action remake of Beauty And The Beast - the year's highest grossing film so far with global takings of $1.26 billion (£942 million).

Gal Gadot's films brought her in at number three Credit: PA

British talent was also well represented in the form of Daisy Ridley, who pipped fellow Londoner John Boyega in the list - combined takings of $1.08 billion (£807 million) from Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Murder On The Orient Express helped her to sixth place.

The Last Jedi's takings of nearly $800 million (£597 million) in only its first two weeks helped Boyega, who also starred in smaller movies Circle and Detroit, place 10th.

Emma Watson made it to fourth with the high-grossing Beauty And The Beast Credit: PA

Spider-Man: Homecoming helped push Tom Holland to seventh place in the list, with global earnings of $888 million (£664 million).

Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth finished eighth and ninth respectively.

Forbes calculated the ranking by adding up global ticket sales of top actors' films using data from Box Office Mojo.

Animated films with voiceovers or actors in minor roles were excluded.