Tom Holland reportedly became the highest-grossing lead actor of all time over the weekend, thanks to a one-two punch of box office hits in the form of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey.
This was originally spotted by BBN Times last night, but the actual numbers come from The Numbers’ weekend box-office gross. As both films raked in an extra 15-ish mil in the United States over Saturday and Sunday, The Odyssey is now standing at a worldwide box office gross of $1,684,432,000, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day has accrued a whopping $2,451,171,000—and that’s without taking weekend international ticket sales into account.
That means that, yes, Tom Holland has overtaken Avatar star and fellow MCU actor Zoe Saldaña in the box office rankings. Saldaña’s worldwide box-office gross sits at roughly $15.47 billion, whereas Holland’s has crossed the $15.5 billion threshold.
Now, before any of the “um, actually” types weigh in, there are a number of important distinctions to point out here. Firstly, this isn’t adjusted for inflation. To be completely honest, I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out who the highest-grossing lead actor is when box-office numbers are adjusted for inflation, only to find out that it’s a woefully under-researched topic. It might be Harrison Ford, but don’t quote me on that.
Secondly, Holland is only the highest-grossing leading actor. Funnily enough, though, when adding non-lead roles into the mix, the highest-grossing actor of all time is either Samuel L. Jackson or Stan Lee. I guess that being in the MCU really is a cheat code in this respect.
The other silly MCU-shaped wrinkle in this stat is Robert Downey Jr., whose leading roles have apparently accrued a worldwide total of roughly $14.3 billion, putting him not too far behind Holland at the moment. Considering that Holland isn’t set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday and that said film is likely to make a boatload of money, it seems doubtful that the Spider-Man actor will be holding onto this title for long.