Zoe Saldaña becomes highest-grossing actor with $15.46bn in global box office

Zoe Saldaña has become the highest-grossing actor of all time, her films having earned more than $15.46bn worldwide, according to The Numbers. The 47-year-old Oscar winner overtook Scarlett Johansson after Avatar: Fire and Ash added more than $1.2bn to her total. The box-office total reflects Saldaña’s work in the Avatar films and her role as Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and the Avengers movies.

Her filmography on the list also includes the Star Trek movies and the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. Avatar: Fire and Ash has been tracking behind previous franchise entries at the box office but has remained at the domestic No 1 spot since its December release. Saldaña also lent her voice to last summer’s Pixar film Elio, which underperformed, and last year she won the best supporting actress Oscar for Netflix’s Emilia Pérez; she is now working on the next season of the action drama Lioness.

The Numbers places Scarlett Johansson as runner-up; it said Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr and Chris Pratt follow them. The highest-grossing actors who hadn’t starred in Marvel films include Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Tom Hanks. While Avatar director James Cameron has said he has the next two films planned, there is yet to be any official confirmation: "If we don’t get to make 4 and 5, for whatever reason, I’ll hold a press conference and I’ll tell you what we were gonna do," he said last month.

Key Topics

Culture, Zoe Saldaña, Avatar, Gamora, Scarlett Johansson, The Numbers