Zoe Saldaña Just Surpassed Another Box Office Milestone With Avatar: Fire And Ash, But What Will It Take For Her To Nab Scarlett Johansson's Crown?

When it comes to being cast in high-grossing movie franchises, Zoe Saldaña clearly hit the jackpot. From playing Neytiri in three Avatar movies, to her tenure as Gamora in the MCU and playing Uhura in the Star Trek films, it’s no wonder the actress has been considered one of the highest grossing actors of all time. But, could Avatar: Fire And Ash propel her to No. 1, knocking Scarlett Johansson from that spot? Let’s talk about it.

Zoe Saldaña Just Became The No. 2 Highest-Grossing Actor Of All Time

Per USA Today, Zoe Saldaña just moved from her spot on the highest-grossing actors of all time list from No. 3 to No. 2, surpassing Samuel L. Jackson thanks to Avatar: Fire And Ash. According to the report, the James Cameron sequel has propelled her movies’ grosses to a grand total of $14,998,849,825 worldwide, over Jackson’s $14,613,700,731.

Avatar: Fire And Ash has made $761.6 million worldwide across less than two weeks, making it one of the biggest 2025 movie releases commercially. In its opening weekend at the box office, it made $88 million domestically and $257 internationally, soaring to a $345 million worldwide debut. It had a solid second weekend too, taking home $64 million domestically and reaching $740 million worldwide. The Hollywood Reporter projects it will reach $1 billion by the end of next weekend.

What Stands Between Zoe Saldaña Surpassing Scarlett Johansson’s No. 1 Status?

Now, Scarlett Johansson became the highest-grossing actor of all time over the summer following Jurassic World: Rebirth adding $869 million to her grand total, bringing her total to $15,401,507,141. If you do some basic subtraction, that puts Saldaña at about $402.6 million away from surpassing Johansson and becoming the new queen of the box office.

In order for Avatar: Fire And Ash to be the actress’s ticket to that spot, Avatar: Fire And Ash will have to gross at least $1.164 billion worldwide by the end of its box office run. Could that happen? We do know that its predecessor made it to $2 billion in late January 2023, but so far, Fire And Ash has been performing a bit lower than Way of Water.

Since Fire And Ash has the leg up of not having a lot of competition throughout the month of January, I think Zoe Saldaña has this pretty much in the bag given Avatar 3 is just getting started at the box office, but we’ll have to wait and see for sure. Whatever does happen, it’s pretty amazing that two ladies are leading the highest-grossing actor list over the likes of other big box office heavy weights such as Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Pratt, Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson and Tom Hanks.