Thanks to Jurassic World Rebirth‘s US$318 million global launch, Scarlett Johansson has officially become the global box office’s highest-grossing lead actor before inflation adjustment, surpassing her Marvel co-stars Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr.
Headlining the reboot of the fan-favourite franchise, Johansson (Black Widow, Marriage Story) takes to the screen alongside Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage, Green Book) and Jonathan Bailey (Wicked, Bridgerton), playing a former military operative-turned-mercenary on a mission to retrieve DNA samples from colossal dinosaurs still alive after the events of the predecessor Jurassic World trilogy previously led by Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Tomorrow War).
Jurassic World Rebirth has had a massively successful box office launch in the first week, second only to Ne Zha 2, the Chinese animated film that has topped all 2025 releases so far. According to data from The Numbers, this has propelled Johansson to a huge lead for her lifetime career box office gross of US$14.8 billion in films where she has played a lead or lead ensemble role.
More than half of that amount was garnered from the four Avengers films and Captain America: Civil War, in which she played Black Widow. Other significant lead ensemble roles include her Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut film Iron Man 2, as well as the two animated Sing movies, where she played the porcupine rock singer, Ash.
Other notable names on the top five highest-grossing lead actors on The Numbers’ list include Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Tomorrow War) and Tom Hanks (A Man Called Otto, Forrest Gump), the latter being the only one who has yet to appear in a Marvel flick. Jackson was the previous record holder, having accumulated US$14.6 billion across his films.
Meanwhile, Downey Jr., touted by many to be the MCU’s founding father, has amassed US$14.2 billion in leading roles, with a sizeable chunk of US$11.8 billion originating from his nine-movie run with Marvel. The actor, however, looks set to surpass Johansson in time to come, given that he has been cast as Marvel’s next big bad, Doctor Doom. Whether Downey Jr. usurps the box office throne from Johansson and lives up to his character’s epithet of Monarch remains to be seen, but he will certainly rack up greater numbers at the box office when Avengers: Doomsday hits theatres in December 2026. Assuming, of course, that Johansson doesn’t make a surprising return as Black Widow in the MCU thanks to multiversal shenanigans.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
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