Entertainment
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Colin Jost Responds as Scarlett Johansson Loses Highest-Grossing Star Title
Yahoo News New Zealand
January 18, 2026•4 days ago
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Zoe Saldaña has surpassed Scarlett Johansson as the highest-grossing actress, with her films earning over $16.9 billion. During a "Weekend Update" segment, Colin Jost humorously acknowledged this change, revealing that including his own movie earnings would reduce Johansson's total, much to his surprise and amusement.
Scarlett Johansson's box office reign has ended — which means a Weekend Update joke was inevitable.
But instead of poking fun at the Jurassic World Rebirth actress, Saturday Night Live has once again made Johansson's husband, Colin Jost, the butt of the joke. During the Jan. 17 segment, Jost read from cue cards as he shared the news.
"Zoe Saldaña—who stars in the new Avatar movie—has surpassed Scarlett Johansson to become the highest-grossing actress of all time," Jost said. As he spoke, a bar graph of both actresses' earnings appeared onscreen.
He continued, "Okay, well let’s see what happens if you include the box office from Scarlett’s husband’s movies."
Accompanied by a comical sound effect, Johansson's earnings then fell from $15.4 billion to $15.1 billion. This change was clearly a surprise to Jost, who burst out laughing as he looked around at the crew in disbelief.
"It went down?!" he exclaimed.
The update from Jost comes days after the Black Widow star, who previously held the title for highest-grossing actor of all time, was dethroned by fellow Marvel star Zoe Saldaña. Thanks to the massive box office yield from Avatar: Fire and Ash — in addition to the prior two films in James Cameron's Avatar franchise — Saldaña's films have earned a whopping $16,946,884,15 at the global box office. Johansson now sits at No. 2 with $16,435,483,784.
For both stars, their time in the MCU accounts for a major part of their cume. Saldaña has appeared in five Marvel films as Gamora, while Johansson has starred in nine. But Saldaña additionally boasts roles in such major franchises as Avatar and Star Trek.
Aside front he MCU, Johansson has succeeded with Jurassic World Rebirth, The Jungle Book, Sing, and Lucy.
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As for Colin Jost, The Numbers puts his box office yield at $488,489,123, thanks to titles such as 2021's Tom & Jerry, Coming 2 America, Fly Me to the Moon (a Johansson-fronted movie in which he made a cameo) and The Bad Guys 2.
Watch Jost react to the box office update below.
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