Industry trackers now place Zoe Saldaña as the highest-grossing actor of all time at the worldwide box office, edging past fellow MCU powerhouse Scarlett Johansson.
Data compiled by sites such as The Numbers and Box Office Mojo attributes roughly 15.5 to 16.8 billion dollars in cumulative global ticket sales to projects where she appears in a key role, narrowly surpassing Johansson’s roughly 15.4 billion haul.
This shift did not happen through one surprise smash, but through a stack of giant properties where she often plays the emotional anchor.
James Cameron’s Avatar films alone account for an estimated 6.6 billion in global revenue across Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and the new sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash, with the original still ranked as the highest-grossing movie of all time and the 2022 follow-up holding a top-three spot.
Avatar: Fire and Ash, released in December, has already passed roughly 1.2 billion at the global box office and was nominated in the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category at the 2026 Golden Globes, giving it a strong awards season spotlight.
Zoe’s MCU presence builds another mountain of revenue on top of Pandora. As Gamora, she appears in Guardians of the Galaxy, its sequels, and crossover titles, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, with reports suggesting that films featuring her Marvel character have pulled in more than 7.5 billion worldwide.
Add the rebooted Star Trek trilogy, which cleared more than 1 billion across three titles between 2009 and 2016, plus early roles in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and the pattern becomes clear: casting her has become a kind of built-in commercial insurance policy.
Franchise Machine or Underrated Trailblazer?
The new record has reignited debate about what “highest-grossing actor” really measures, since rankings depend heavily on franchise work and ensemble casts rather than solo star vehicles.
The Numbers and similar box office sites typically tally revenue from films where the actor is billed in a leading or major role, then stack those totals to generate all-time charts, which means performers tied to multi-film sagas can surge far beyond peers with more standalone projects.
Critics of the metric argue that it reflects the strength of brands such as Marvel and Avatar as much as individual star power, yet even that argument underlines how consistently top directors and studios choose her for high-stakes roles.
Zoe Saldaña (Credit: NBC)
At the same time, Zoe’s climb carries cultural weight that goes beyond spreadsheets. As a Latina actor who has spent much of her career at the center of blockbuster franchises, she represents a rare case of sustained global success for a woman of color in big-budget genre storytelling, especially in science fiction.
Commentators in outlets ranging from USA Today to international entertainment sites have emphasized how unusual it is that she appears in four of the seven highest-grossing films ever made, including the top three, an achievement no other performer shares.
Online reaction has mixed celebration and questions about visibility and recognition. Many fans point out that while her box office record is historic, she often receives less individual awards traction than male co-stars or directors linked to the same titles.
Industry coverage has also noted the irony that much of her most lucrative work involves performance capture or heavy prosthetics, from her blue Na’vi warrior Neytiri to the green-skinned assassin Gamora, which can obscure how central she is to the emotional core of these franchises.
What This Means For Marvel, Avatar, and Everyone Chasing Her
From a business perspective, Zoe’s position at the top of the all-time earnings list reinforces a trend studios already recognized: long-term, interconnected franchise ecosystems generate far more reliable returns than one-off blockbusters.
Disney and Marvel have seen nearly every Avengers film with her onboard clear the billion-dollar line or land close to it, while the Guardians trilogy helped keep interest alive for more character-driven cosmic stories within the MCU.
James Cameron’s commitment to a multi-film Avatar saga further cements her as a foundational figure in two of the most valuable cinematic brands on Earth, which explains why future sequels are already mapped out with her character in mind.
Reports note that she is expected to add even more to her cumulative total with upcoming installments, including further Avatar chapters and another Avengers event film, tentatively referred to in coverage as Avengers: Doomsday on current studio schedules.
Trade outlets such as Variety and E! Online suggest that, given the trajectory of Fire and Ash plus planned franchise entries, her lead over Scarlett Johansson and other box office heavyweights like Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise, and Dwayne Johnson could widen throughout the next few years.
For Marvel, the record adds extra narrative pressure and opportunity. Even after Gamora’s emotional arc in Avengers: Endgame and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, speculation continues about how or whether the studio might bring her back in future multiverse storylines, especially now that her involvement can be framed as a proven billion-dollar catalyst.
For Cameron and the Avatar team, the milestone helps market the next films as chapters in a saga led not only by cutting-edge effects but also by an actor whose presence has become synonymous with box office reliability.
Zoe herself has acknowledged the milestone publicly, sharing a message of gratitude that credited directors and collaborators rather than treating the ranking as a solo victory, a tone widely reported across outlets that covered her new status.
Yet behind that modest framing sits a stark statistical truth: no other performer currently active has combined so many mega franchises, over such a long stretch, with such consistent returns.
Whether audiences meet her next as Neytiri, Gamora, or another genre-defining lead, one fact now shapes every headline about her career, including the latest: Zoe Saldaña is the actor everyone else is chasing at the global box office.
Guillermo del Toro lit up social media with a simple but insistent post about No Other Choice, ranking it among his three favorite films from Park Chan-wook and urging fans to track it down right away.
The endorsement came just as Academy members kicked off voting for the 98th Oscar nominations, a timing that multiple entertainment sites flagged as perfectly pitched to influence branch voters in categories like Best International Feature.
His Frankenstein recently earned five Golden Globe nods and shortlist spots in six Oscar races, lending extra weight to the recommendation from a director known for championing bold genre work.
Coverage exploded across outlets like IMDb and Screen Rant, where headlines highlighted the plea as a potential awards catalyst for a film already boasting a 98 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, 13 points above del Toro’s own recent gothic epic.
Park Chan-wook, whose Decision to Leave won him best director at Cannes in 2022, has long been a festival darling, but No Other Choice stands out for blending savage laughs with sharp economic critique in a way that echoes Parasite’s global breakthrough.
Online chatter quickly amplified the call, with Reddit threads debating its place in Park’s filmography alongside classics like Oldboy and Lady Vengeance.
Murderous Job Hunt Hooks Critics Worldwide
No Other Choice follows Yoo Man-su, a devoted paper company manager played by Lee Byung-hun, whose 25 years of service end abruptly with a layoff that threatens his family home and stability.
Desperate to reclaim his spot, he turns to increasingly dark schemes against rival applicants, pulling in his wife Mi-ri, portrayed by Son Ye-jin, for a twisted partnership that mixes pitch-black humor with raw desperation.
Supporting turns from Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, and Cha Seung-won round out a stacked Korean cast, delivering set pieces that balance visceral thrills and pointed satire on corporate cruelty and job market brutality.
Guillermo del Toro (Credit: CNN)
The film debuted at the 2025 Venice Film Festival to an eight-and-a-half-minute standing ovation, one of the festival’s longest, and quickly notched a perfect 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from initial reviews before settling at 98 percent with over 60 critiques.
Outlets praised its controlled chaos, with Variety calling it a dazzling murder comedy and the BBC dubbing it deliriously entertaining, often comparing the class tensions to Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar sweep with Parasite. Adapted from Donald E.
Westlake’s The Ax, the story probes AI-driven job loss and unemployment anxiety, landing as timely amid global economic pressures, which helped it top Korean pre-sales and signal North American potential.
Audiences and critics alike noted the precision in its tonal shifts, from family barbecue warmth to cold-blooded scheming, with festival reports emphasizing how Park’s elegant style makes the violence both hilarious and humane.
Executive producers Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and Alfonso Cuaron added early prestige, fueling Venice hype and positioning it as a frontrunner before its wide release in September 2025.
Oscar Path Clears Amid Voting Rush
Del Toro’s shoutout arrives at a pivotal moment, with Oscar nomination ballots open to Academy members and shortlists already announced in categories like International Feature, where Korean cinema has faced lean years since Parasite’s 2020 dominance.
No Other Choice has earned longlist nods at the BAFTAs for Best Film Not in the English Language and pending spots at the Dorians and Satellites for adapted screenplay, building a case for Park’s first competitive Oscar run after prior festival triumphs.
Industry trackers now float it as a strong international feature contender, especially with its certified fresh status and del Toro’s vocal support potentially swaying voters who respect his taste in twisted narratives.
For Park, who returned to commercial cinema after three years, the momentum mirrors his Venice entry two decades ago with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, but with a broader streaming and theatrical reach this time.
Korean cinema watchers see it as a rebound after recent festival misses, with its box office hold at number one domestically and rave reviews from global critics giving it legs into awards season.
The film’s themes of economic survival resonate more deeply now, as headlines tie its plot to real-world layoffs and fears of automation, making del Toro’s plea feel less like hype and more like a nudge toward recognition for a thriller that punches above its typical genre fare.
As voting wraps, expect more directors to echo the call, turning No Other Choice from an overlooked gem to a must-see awards player. With its perfect blend of stars, satire, and style, Park Chan-wook’s latest proves why heavyweights like del Toro keep the spotlight on it.
