Who has dethroned Scarlett Johansson as highest grossing actress?

Scarlett Johansson has been knocked off the top spot as the highest grossing movie star of all time by Avatar and Marvel star Zoe Saldaña.

The recent third instalment of James Cameron’s Avatar saga, Avatar: Fire And Ash, has propelled the 2025 Oscar winner to the top of the list, according to industry publication The Numbers.

Saldaña has starred in four of the seven highest-grossing films of all time, including the top three (Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way Of Water) and these franchises have led the 47-year-old actress to become the top star in a leading role at the worldwide box office, with a gross of $15.46 billion worldwide.

This means that she just overtakes Scarlett Johansson, whose films have grossed $15.4bn.

Avatar: Fire and Ash officially crossed the $1bn milestone at the global box office at the beginning of the year, becoming Cameron’s fourth film to cross the billion mark, following Titanic, Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, and one of only three Hollywood movies released in 2025 to cross $1billion, following Lilo & Stitch ($1.038bn) and Zootopia 2 ($1.51bn to date).

As of Tuesday, Avatar: Fire And Ash hit $1.23bn.

In our less than glowing review of Avatar: Fire And Ash, we wrote: “There’s no denying the eye-popping technical wizardry at play here, and no one is saying that this isn’t epic filmmaking. But impressive technological leaps don’t amount to much without an engaging – let alone new – story, and the audience risk becoming numb to the cosmetic backdrop if they feel insulted by an afterthought script serving up a reheated mishmash of disjointed plot threads. What’s crystal clear with this third instalment is that once you’ve seen one Avatar film, you’ve seen them all.”

It remains to be seen whether the third Avatar film can surpass the $2bn mark in worldwide revenues. If it does, a fourth chapter in the series would be all but inevitable.

Cameron has previously stated that he has plans for fourth and fifth instalments, and recently joked that if Avatar: Fire And Ash underperforms, he would hold a press conference to reveal the plot details of Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.

“I don’t know if the saga goes beyond this point. I hope it does,” Cameron told Entertainment Weekly. “But, you know, we prove that business case every time we go out.”

“Here’s what it is,” he added. “If we don’t get to make 4 and 5, for whatever reason, I’ll hold a press conference and I’ll tell you what we were gonna do. How’s that?”