How Zendaya Officially Became the Highest-Grossing Actor of 2026

There’s arguably no other star who’s had a year full of amazing movie releases like Zendaya. And now that the numbers have come in, her nearly back-to-back film drops have officially cemented her as the highest-grossing actor of 2026. Let’s take a look at how she got there!

Zendaya has been working in Hollywood since she was a teen, starring in popular Disney shows like “Shake It Up” and “K.C. Undercover.” Over the years, she has proven to be a major draw at both the box office and on TV, thanks to the massive success of projects like Marvel’s “Spider-Man” franchise, “Euphoria,” “Challengers,” and more.

But no year has quite literally paid off like 2026 for Zendaya as three (soon-to-be four) films have already made her the highest-grossing actor this year—and it’s only August! This new title was recently bestowed upon her by Forbes in a report released on Monday, which showed that both the newly released “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” are responsible for generating serious coins for her.

Related: Behind Zendaya’s Iconic The Odyssey Premiere Look

The latest installment of the “Spider-Man” franchise opened to $355 million in North America and $927 million worldwide, making it the second-largest global opening weekend in box office history. (The film in the top spot?” Avengers: Endgame”).

Her other hot summer project, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” grossed $911 million worldwide in the last three weeks since its release. When you combine the numbers from both films, it equals nearly $430 million across the U.S.—the most for a domestic box office weekend ever! If you include Z’s April 2026 film, “The Drama,” all three projects have brought in almost $2 billion worldwide.

But Zendaya’s not done yet. Remember that “soon-to-be fourth film” we mentioned earlier? Yeah, well, we were referring to “Dune: Part Three,” which is set to hit theaters this December. While we haven’t seen the numbers for that film, if we look at how the first two movies performed ($410 million and $714 million worldwide), we can expect “Part Three” to rake in multiple millions too, only adding to Z’s box office success!