The Highest-Grossing Actors of 2014

The other day we brought you the not-so-shocking revelation that Adam Sandler is the most overpaid actor in Hollywood (for the second year in a row!), but what about the actors who made 2014 a great time at the movies? We’re talking about the leading men and women who aren’t necessarily the highest-paid, but who have brought in the most money at the box office—proving their successful ability to draw millions of people to see their films, sometimes more than once. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that your imaginary BFFs Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are at the top of the list of the highest-grossing actors of 2014.

Last week, Forbes released their list of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood—that would be the actors whose box office earnings are woefully underwhelming in contrast to the insane amount of money they’re getting paid. This week, Forbes has released the list of the highest-grossing actors in Hollywood, which is a bit different from the list we came up with earlier this month. To do this, they took the box office grosses for each film an actor starred in from Box Office Mojo, and added them together to get the total amount of revenue an actor generated. Here are the top 10:

1. Jennifer Lawrence, who starred in the 2014 films ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ and ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1.’ Both of her films collectively earned $1.4 billion worldwide.

2. Chris Pratt, whose leading man charisma emerged this year in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ which earned a total of $1.2 billion worldwide.

3. Scarlett Johansson was the queen of science fiction this year: following her fantastic voice performance in 2013's ‘Her,’ Johansson starred in ‘Under the Skin’ and ‘Lucy.’ She also reprised her role as Black Widow for ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’ Together, the three films brought in $1.18 billion worldwide.

4. Mark Wahlberg, who appeared in both ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ and ‘The Gambler.’ The former earned $1 billion, while the latter picked up $5 million following its Christmas Day release.

5. Chris Evans took the lead in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Snowpiercer,’ collectively generating $801 million.

6. Emma Stone starred in the underwhelming ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2,’ and charmed audiences in indie hits ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ and ‘Birdman.’ Her films earned $764 million, all told.

7. Angelina Jolie, who starred in the Disney revisionist fairy tale ‘Maleficent,’ brought in $758 million, making it Jolie’s biggest box office hit to date. Jolie also directed ‘Unbroken’ this year, but the report only looks at films in which the actors starred.

8, 9, and 10. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Hugh Jackman all landed in the last three spots largely thanks to their roles in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past.’ That film earned $746 million worldwide. McAvoy also appeared in the indies ‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Filth,’ while Fassbender starred in the acclaimed indie ‘Frank.’ Although both actors appeared in these smaller films in addition to ‘X-Men,’ those films didn’t generate enough box office to really affect the overall gross.

It makes sense, of course, that many of the actors on this list appeared in superhero films and big franchises, with the exception of Jolie, who appeared in a major Disney film. All of these actors are incredibly beloved, and while you might think some of these films and franchises would still attract large box office earnings without them, it’s their star power that accentuates each film. They’re a huge part of why we’re interested in seeing these films at all. Would ‘Maleficent’ be this successful without Jolie? Probably not.