Out of the five highest grossing lead actors in Hollywood history, four have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These include Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, and Chris Pratt, who played Nick Fury, Iron Man aka Tony Stark, and Star Lord aka Peter Quill in the MCU. Now, the fourth actor has surpassed all of them to become the highest grossing lead actor of Hollywood with a lifetime box office gross of $14.8 billion (₹126,895 crores) so far.
The actor in question is Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff in the MCU. As per the trade portal The Numbers, the lion’s share of the $14.8 billion figure belongs to Scarlett’s MCU movies — The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) — which add up to $8.7 billion (Rs 746 crore).
Other films that add to her lifetime gross include MCU’s Iron Man 2 (2010), and the two-part Sing animated franchise (2016, 2021) by Universal Pictures, to which she lent her voice. But it’s her latest release that’s helped push her total past the previous record holder, Samuel L Jackson. Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi action adventure film Jurassic World Rebirth has amassed $318 billion over its extended opening weekend globally.
Jackson previously held the record at $14.6 billion, with his voice role in Pixar’s two Incredibles films (2004, 2018) also included. Third in line is Robert Downey Jr at $14.2 billion, out of which yet again, the lion’s share at $11.8 billion (Rs 1,180 crore) belonging to the nine MCU films he’s appeared in, from Iron Man (2008) to Avengers: Endgame.
Downey returns to the MCU as Doctor Doom in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027), which would help him challenge the newly established #1 lifetime box office gross of his MCU co-star Scarlett. She’s assumed to be dead in the MCU, and has confirmed she won’t return post her final appearance in the 2021 spin-off Black Widow.
Scarlett has replaced MCU co-star Chris Pratt in the new Jurassic World instalment. The Universal Pictures release, directed by Gareth Edwards, opened on Wednesday and earned $147.3 million in its first five days in 4,308 North American theaters. An estimated $91.5 million of that comes from the traditional “three day” weekend, which includes the Friday holiday, Saturday and projected Sunday ticket sales.
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Internationally, it opened in 82 markets including China, adding $171 million to the opening total. According to the studio, $41.5 million of that came from China alone, where it played on 65,000 screens, 760 of which were IMAX. It’s the country’s biggest MPA (Motion Picture Association) opening of the year. Rebirth, also starring Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, is the fourth movie in the Jurassic World series and the seventh since Steven Spielberg’s original Michael Crichton adaptation stormed theatres in the summer of 1993.
