It’s official: Zoe Saldaña has usurped fellow MCU star Scarlett Johansson as the highest-grossing lead actor at the box office, thanks to the success of Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Movies starring Saldaña, who plays Na’vi-princess-warrior Neytiri in James Cameron’s CGI sci-fi Avatar trilogy, have taken a collective $15.47 billion, besting the previous $14.8 billion figure set by ScarJo in 2025 following the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth.
Saldaña’s record came as the third Avatar movie surpassed $2 billion globally, per Variety. Impressively that’s only her fourth-highest-grossing blockbuster—2009’s Avatar raked in $2.92 billion to take the lead, followed by Avengers: Endgame (in which she plays Gamora) at $2.79 billion and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water at $2.32 billion. She is also the first actress to appear in four movies that have generated more than $2 billion globally, including 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.
Revenue is one thing, but Saldaña’s most impressive accolade was awarded for her performance as Rita Moro Castro in the musical Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard. At the 2025 Academy Awards, she became the first Dominican American to win Best Supporting Actress.
“It feels really good,” Saldaña recently told Variety about becoming on Oscar winner. “My husband [director Marco Perego Saldaña] is so funny. He has this joke; he goes, ‘Z, you can’t do anything right now without people announcing you as Academy Award winner.” You can’t rob a bank, because it’ll be like, “Academy Award winner…”‘ I’m like, ‘Oh my God,’” she said, laughing. “But it’s true. I’m honored. I’m very happy. I’m also like, ‘OK, let’s continue to work.’”
Saldaña may hold the box office record for some time, as she’s expected to return for the fourth and fifth Avatar movies, currently slated for 2029 and 2031 releases. Assuming she continues to reprise Neytiri, $20 billion could be around the corner.
