{"id":410457,"date":"2026-01-13T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410457\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T17:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:30:08","slug":"zoe-saldana-becomes-highest-grossing-actor-of-all-time-with-avatar-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410457\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoe Salda\u00f1a Becomes Highest-Grossing Actor of All Time With ‘Avatar 3’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAcademy Award winner Zoe Salda\u00f1a is officially the highest-grossing actor of all time, thanks to \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSalda\u00f1a has starred in the three highest-grossing films of all time \u2014 2009\u2019s \u201cAvatar\u201d and its 2022 sequel \u201cThe Way of Water,\u201d which hold the No. 1 and 3 spots respectively, as well as 2019\u2019s \u201cAvengers: Endgame,\u201d sandwiched at No. 2. She is also the first actress to appear in four movies that have generated more than $2 billion globally, including 2018\u2019s \u201cAvengers: Infinity War.\u201d In addition to \u201cAvatar\u201d and her other Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances as Gamora (she was in three \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy\u201d movies), Salda\u00f1a also portrayed Nyota Uhura in a \u201cStar Trek\u201d trilogy, which generated more than $1 billion worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs of 2024<\/a>, Salda\u00f1a\u2019s global box office haul totaled more than $14 billion, putting her as the third-highest grossing actor behind fellow MCU stars Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson<\/a>. However, Salda\u00f1a was propelled to the No. 1 spot after this December\u2019s \u201cAvatar\u201d threequel, which has earned $1.23 billion<\/a> to date. Now her films have amassed a combined $15.47 billion, according to a tally by the Numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSalda\u00f1a had a major year in 2025: In March, she won the best supporting actress Oscar<\/a> for her show-stopping performance in \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d and made history as the first Dominican American to win an Academy Award. The audacious musical, from auteur Jacques Audiard, earned Salda\u00f1a prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film debuted, as well as a clean sweep of awards season accolades, including a SAG award, BAFTA award, Golden Globe and Critics Choice award.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt feels really good,\u201d Salda\u00f1a recently told Variety about having \u201cOscar winner\u201d as her new prefix. \u201cMy husband [director Marco Perego Salda\u00f1a] is so funny. He has this joke; he goes, \u2018Z, you can\u2019t do anything right now without people announcing you as \u201cAcademy Award winner.\u201d You can\u2019t rob a bank, because it\u2019ll be like, \u201cAcademy Award winner\u2026\u201d\u2018 I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my God,’\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cBut it\u2019s true. I\u2019m honored. I\u2019m very happy. I\u2019m also like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s continue to work.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d Salda\u00f1a reprises her role as Na\u2019vi warrior Neytiri, whose relationship with human soldier-turned-Na\u2019vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is the focus of the franchise\u2019s story. To transform the Afro-Latina actor into the blue-skinned, 8-foot-tall humanoid, the movie utilizes an innovative form of performance capture technology, pioneered by filmmaker James Cameron.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe reason why this world is so real to so many people is because the acting was the most important element for Jim,\u201d Salda\u00f1a explained. \u201cPerformance capture gives the actor the ability not to have to rely so much on all the things that can sometimes be very distracting in regular live-action. Performance capture gives you the gift of connection and putting all of your heart and all of your energy into that scene, into that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSalda\u00f1a is expected to return for \u201cAvatar 4\u201d (slated for December 2029) and \u201cAvatar 5\u201d (planned to debut December 2031) \u2014 so expect her to continue raking in the box office dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Academy Award winner Zoe Salda\u00f1a is officially the highest-grossing actor of all time, thanks to \u201cAvatar: Fire and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,14711,134,344,130118],"class_list":{"0":"post-410457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-zoe-saldana"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}