After another impressively profitable weekend in theaters, James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire And Ash helped crown its star Zoe Saldaña the queen of the box office.
The third Avatar movie boasted US$21.3mil in North American sales last week, bringing it to a global total of US$1.23bil. With those impressive stats, Saldaña officially surpassed Scarlett Johansson as the highest-grossing actor of all time.
The Oscar winner has grossed more than US$15.47bil at the international box office, according to box office tracking website the Numbers. Johansson only recently gained the title after surpassing her Avengers co-star Samuel L. Jackson with the release of last summer’s Jurassic World Rebirth.
What helped buoy Saldaña to the top is the fact that the 47-year-old actor stars in the three highest-grossing films of all time: 2009’s Avatar”(US$2.9bil), 2019’s Avengers: Endgame (US$2.8bil) and 2022’s Avatar: The Way Of Water (US$2.3bil).
Saldaña is also the only actor to appear in four movies that brought in over US$2bil worldwide. (2018’s Avengers: Infinity War grossed US$2.05bil.)
Last year proved that Saldaña’s talent exceeded the realm of popcorn movies when she nabbed her first Academy Award for her supporting role in the controversial musical Emilia Pérez. Her win marked the first time an actor with Dominican roots had won an Oscar.
“I am a proud child of immigrant parents, with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands,” she said through tears while accepting the award for supporting actress. “And I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last.”
Saldaña cemented her Oscar win while side-stepping criticisms of the film — namely regarding its portrayals of Mexicans and transgender people — as well as the scandal that surrounded Emilia Pérez co-star Karla Sofía Gascón, when her offensive tweets with anti-Muslim, anti-diversity and racist language resurfaced. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
