Zoe Saldaña Claims Title As Highest-Grossing Actor Ever With ‘Avatar’ Success

Academy Award winner Zoe Saldaña now holds the record as cinema’s highest-grossing actor following the success of Avatar: Fire & Ash. The December release earned $1.23 billion, pushing Saldaña’s total career box office earnings to $15.47 billion. She appears in the three top-grossing films ever: 2009’s Avatar, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and 2022’s Avatar: The Way Of Water. Saldaña became the first actress in four $2 billion movies, including 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Her portfolio includes Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy as Gamora and the Star Trek series as Nyota Uhura. In 2025, she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in Emilia Pérez, becoming the first Dominican American Academy Award winner. She will return for Avatar 4 in 2029 and Avatar 5 in 2031.