Four years after exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Black Widow,” Scarlett Johansson has now set a new record as the global box office’s highest grossing lead actor before inflation adjustment, passing fellow MCU stars Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. And it is all thanks to “Jurassic World: Rebirth.”
In the new film, Johannson takes over from Chris Pratt as the lead star of the dinosaur franchise, playing ex-military operative Zora Bennett in a mission to one of the few remaining islands where dinosaurs still live following the events of the “Jurassic World” trilogy. In its first six days in theaters worldwide, the film has earned a $318 million global launch, second only to the Chinese animated film “Ne Zha 2” among all 2025 releases.
According to data from The Numbers, that start gives Johansson a lifetime career box office gross of $14.8 billion in films where she plays a lead role or a lead ensemble role. More than $8.7 billion of that total comes from the four “Avengers” films and “Captain America: Civil War,” in which she played Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow.
Other lead ensemble roles that count towards that total include her MCU debut film, “Iron Man 2,” and the two animated “Sing” films, in which she voiced the rock-loving porcupine Ash.
Of the top five highest grossing lead actors on The Numbers’ list, the only one that has not appeared in a Marvel film is Tom Hanks, with the others being Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Jackson (Nick Fury) and Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord). Jackson previously held the record with $14.6 billion, with Pixar’s two “Incredibles” films being counted by the site as a lead ensemble role.
Downey Jr., the MCU’s founding father, has $14.2 billion in leading roles in The Numbers’ books, with approximately $11.8 billion coming from his nine Marvel movies. His Best Supporting Actor Oscar winning turn in the $976 million “Oppenheimer,” as the name of that award would suggest, is not included in that count.
Depending on whether one counts Doctor Doom as a lead ensemble role, Downey Jr. will have a chance to take the box office crown back from Johansson in December 2026 when “Avengers: Doomsday” hits theaters … assuming of course that the film and/or its 2027 follow-up “Avengers: Secret Wars” doesn’t use multiversal loopholes to bring Black Widow back from the dead despite Johansson’s assertions in multiple interviews that her time in the MCU has ended.
