Scarlett Johansson has become Hollywood’s highest-grossing lead actor, achieving the feat thanks to the recent blockbuster success of Jurassic World: Rebirth.
The latest instalment of the Jurassic universe landed in cinemas last week, and in addition to gifting us a press tour filled with Jonathan Bailey, it also helped Johansson — who plays the protagonist — set a new record as the highest grossing star at the global box office.
Thanks to the film’s eye-watering ticket sales over the 4th of July weekend in the US, the combined box office haul of films in which Johansson plays the lead bumped up to a cool a $14.61 billion (per The Numbers).
You know, pocket change.
For those doing the maths, that now puts the actress ahead of the two fellow Marvel stars in her wake, namely second highest-grossing star Samuel L. Jackson (whose films have grossed $14.60 billion) and Robert Downey Jr. ($14.3 billion).
While it’s an amount of money that quite literally just made me pee myself, Johansson’s crowning has been a long time coming, since her star power has long been lent to mammoth franchises and blockbusters.
Alongside Jurassic World, the biggest Johansson vehicles that contributed to her feat are the whopping seven Marvel movies she’s starred in as Black Widow, as well as the sci-fi flick Lucy and the animated film Sing, the latter of which her wallet is doing right about now.
Avengers is also to thank for Jackson and Downey Jr.’s stats, but what’s especially impressive about Johansson is that she surpassed them with just 36 films in leading roles, compared to Jackson’s 71 movies and Downey Jr.’s 45.
Interestingly, Johansson said back in 2016, when she first appeared in a lower spot on list, that she found it “disappointing”.
“It’s exciting to be the only woman in the category,” the actress said at the time, with only men accounting for the remaining top 20 spots.
“It’s kind of disappointing, actually, to be the only woman in this category. That was a little bit of a surprise to me.”
In the years since, the picture hasn’t exactly improved, with Johansson, Zoe Saldana, and Emma Watson the only women to appear in the top 20.
An interesting side note that I just think is worth mentioning, there was a time, pre-Marvel, when Jim Carrey was among Hollywood’s highest-grossing actors, thanks to his blockbuster comedic run with The Mask, Dumb & Dumber and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1994.
Just goes to show, you don’t have to don a superhero suit to make it big in Hollywood. You can also make extremely weird faces and save pets.
Lead images: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images and Universal Pictures
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