Zoe Saldaña has a lot to celebrate. The Dominican-American actress just became the highest-grossing actor of all time, toppling a record held by Scarlett Johansson. Saldaña, who’s starred in some of the most prolific franchise films of all time, has a box office record of $15.46 billion worldwide.
Saldaña’s record comes on the heels of the success of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which has been performing incredibly well since its premiere in December. It remains the number one movie at the box office as of this writing.
Throughout her career, Saldaña has starred in numerous successful franchises, including “Star Trek,” where she played Nyota Uhura. That same year, in 2009, she followed up with “Avatar,” one of the world’s most successful films of all time. It’s been a string of box office successes since, with Saldaña working on the Marvel Universe, starring in hits like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
Johansson took the record last year, after starring in “Jurassic World Rebirth.” The two women have worked in the Avengers movies in the past, with these numbers ultimately adding to their tallies.
According to the website The Numbers, the women are followed by Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Pratt. All have starred in Marvel projects, demonstrating the power that these movies had at the box office at the time of their release.
© Robert KamauSaldaña’s incredible 2025
The box office record comes after a landmark year for Saldaña, who won her first Oscar in 2025 for “Emilia Perez.” That evening, she became the first Dominican American to take the prize.
In an interview with Variety, Saldaña opened up about having the words “Oscar winner” forever attached to her name. “It feels really good,” she said. “My husband 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.
“But it’s true. I’m honored. I’m very happy. I’m also like, ‘OK, let’s continue to work.’”
© VCG via Getty ImagesAs she’s promoted the new “Avatar” film, Saldaña has discussed the importance of performance capture acting, the advanced and unique technology utilized in these projects. “Performance capture gives the actor the ability not to have to rely so much on all the things that can sometimes be very distracting in regular live-action,” she said.
“Performance capture gives you the gift of connection and putting all of your heart and all of your energy into that scene, into that moment.”
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