Zoe Saldaña has made history as the highest-grossing actor of all time.
Saldaña’s role as Neytiri in Avatar: Fire and Ash has pushed her past Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson as the top earner in film history. The third Avatar film has earned $1.23 billion so far, according to Variety, and her film roles across the Avatar franchise and Marvel universe have earned a combined total of $15.47 billion, as reported by The Numbers.
The Emilia Perez star has been a box office powerhouse for years, starring in three of the top-grossing films of all time: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water. Variety notes that she is the first female actor to appear in four films that have made over $2 billion globally. That includes her roles in the Avatar films, Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Star Trek franchise.
Saldaña is set to increase her status with the upcoming ‘Avatar’ sequels
Saldaña is likely to hold onto her record-breaking streak, with two more Avatar sequels slated for release in December 2029 and December 2031.
In a recent interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act tied to Avatar: Fire and Ash, she spoke about how technology has advanced in years in relation to how fledgling some technology was when Avatar first came out.
“We’ll begin to witness it the more and more people begin to use it when it doesn’t work, because there’s no connection,” she said. “We as human beings, yes, we want to be fed things fast. We’re living in an era where instant gratification, 30 seconds or less, and that’s causing us to become so impatient with each other. We’re so impatient. If we don’t get it now and we don’t get it fast, we don’t want it. I think that Avatar presented a challenge for Jim, because this movie requires time, and it requires patience, and it requires love in order for you to be able to connect with it,” she said. “And what’s made this movie so special is that everybody that allows themselves to go see it, they are immediately connected.”
In response to all the criticisms of AI, she said, “Yes, people will abuse, misuse and use, overuse generative AI, but those are the films that though people may go see it, they’re soulless. So, at the end of the day, Jim did not cheat. He did not take a shortcut.”
She added, “I think that we should continue these conversations, and we should remain completely open, and curious so that we can reach a place of compelling our organizations to regulate it. This needs to be regulated by law. And then all of a sudden, it will not be abused and misused.”