Who is the highest-grossing actor that’s never been in a superhero movie?
Casting an eye over a list of the highest-grossing actors at the worldwide box office is an eye-opening experience. It reveals there are a considerable number of genuine Hollywood icons who are nowhere near the top 20, which sounds antithetical until you consider the title of this very article. You see, the vast majority of stars whose movies have raked in billions of dollars at the worldwide box office have achieved those numbers, at least in part, by wearing capes and tights in a superhero movie. Or ten.
Indeed, thanks to the sheer dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past two decades, not to mention the critically derided but still phenomenally successful DC Extended Universe of films, it’s becoming harder and harder to point to any actor who hasn’t done their tour of duty in a superhero flick.
In truth, when the number one box office draw, purely in terms of numbers, is comic book icon Stan Lee, simply because of his extensive list of cameos in Marvel movies, it should be blindingly obvious that the superhero industrial complex has truly swallowed Hollywood.
But wait, you may argue: “John Ratzenberger from Cheers hasn’t been in a superhero movie, and he’s at number three on the list!” Well, that would be true if Ratzenberger, who reached such lofty heights thanks to his vocal work in countless Pixar movies, hadn’t been in Superman: The Movie and Superman II as a lowly missile controller way back in ’78 and ’80.
Who is the highest-grossing actor that’s never been in a superhero movie?
Aside from a couple of other voice actors like Frank Welker and Bob Bergen, who don’t tend to appear in live-action films, the rest of the top 20 is predominantly superhero-based. Samuel L Jackson is at number two behind cameo machine Lee, although most people consider him the true highest-grossing actor. Of course, a lot of his success can be laid at the feet of Marvel superspy Nick Fury, and the same goes for Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr at number six (Iron Man), Chris Pratt at number seven (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Scarlett Johansson at number nine (Black Widow).
Amazingly, it takes until number 15 on the list of highest grossers to come to someone who has never associated with capes and cowls. This person starred in a beloved mid-1980s classic alongside a young Val Kilmer as a frenemy with whom he forms a genuine bond, and in 2022, the film finally received a belated sequel that created a whole new generation of fans. However, if you think I’m referring to Tom Cruise and Top Gun, you couldn’t be more wrong. I am, of course, talking about Warwick Davis and Willow!
Yes, you read that correctly: instead of Cruise – widely considered the last true movie star – taking the number one spot with most money made without a superhero assist, he lags behind Star Wars’ favourite Ewok star Davis. As Hollywood’s most prominent dwarf actor of the last four decades, he has appeared in a host of roles in seven theatrically released Star Wars movies, from 1983’s Return of the Jedi all the way to 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
As if that wasn’t lucrative enough, Davis has also frequented the Harry Potter series, appearing buried under prosthetics in all eight films as Professor Filius Flitwick, Griphook, and a Goblin bank teller. Throw in a handful of other fantasy blockbuster roles in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Jack the Giant Slayer, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Davis has been laughing all the way to the non-superpowered bank.
Sadly, Cruise doesn’t even make the top 20 of this superhero-dominated world. However, his position at number 21 is more than enough to make him the highest-grossing lead actor who has never been in a superhero movie, and that’s an incredible feat in and of itself. He has eight Mission: Impossible pictures, two Top Guns, two Jack Reachers, and a veritable smorgasbord of hits like Rain Man, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, Minority Report, and War of the Worlds to light up his filmography instead of a stint as a superhero, and I think that’s pretty damn cool.
