Scarlett Johansson Dethroned as Highest-Grossing Actor by Fellow Marvel Star
Playing a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a boon to any actor’s box office totals, as eight of the 10 actors at the top of The Numbers’ list of Top 100 Stars in Leading Roles at the Worldwide Box Office plainly tells.
But that, along with the $869 million that Jurassic World Rebirth contributed to last year’s box office totals weren’t enough to keep two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson at the very top of that list for 2026. As The Guardian reports, there’s a new top earner in town, and they just happen to be one of Johansson’s fellow Avengers.
Zoe Saldaña is the new ruler of the box office, according to the numbers, with an eye-popping sum of $15,468,366,118 in ticket sales, based on 33 movies, giving her movies an average windfall of $468,738,369 in theaters.
Johansson, meanwhile, fell just $66.8 million short of Saldaña receipts, with an equally impressive box office take of $15,401,507,141 over 36 movies, giving the Lost in Translation star an average movie gross of $427,819,643.
While it’s a close race between the two talented women, what ultimately pushed Saldaña ahead is her involvement with James Cameron’s Avatar series.
While the original 2009 film still holds the title of Highest-Grossing Movie Ever Made with its $2.9 billion box office success, its 2022 follow-up, Avatar: The Way of Water, holds the number three spot on the chart with $2.3 billion. Sandwiched in between, in the number two spot, is 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which features both Saldaña and Johansson.
Saldaña also solidified her acting credentials outside of the mega-budget world last year when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez.
Unfortunately for Johansson, she was only just getting used to her throne as the highest-grossing actor on the planet. In July, she leapt over her fellow MCU stars—longtime record-holder Samuel L. Jackson in the top spot, followed by Robert Downey Jr.—to take the lead. The latest tallies from The Numbers put Jackson and Downey in the third and fourth spots, respectively.
Who Are the Highest-Grossing Actors in the World?
The full list of Hollywood’s top moneymakers is filled with MCU stars, as well as some of Saldaña’s fellow Cameron collaborators. The top of the list reads as follows:
1. Zoe Saldaña
2. Scarlett Johansson
3. Samuel L. Jackson
4. Robert Downey Jr.
5. Chris Pratt
6. Tom Cruise
8. Vin Diesel
9. Chris Evans
10. Dwayne Johnson
11. Bradley Cooper
12. Tom Hanks
13. Johnny Depp
14. Tom Holland
15. Mark Ruffalo
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day coming in July, and Avengers: Doomsday, featuring the return of Downey plus Hemsworth and Evans, don’t expect to see a little shakeup in this list by year’s end.