and now for something completely different

and now for something completely different

The topic of Canadian politics has been done to death in this blog over the last month, so I figured I would change the pace a bit.

I was looking through MovieWeb's all time 100 top grossing films the other day, and noticed that there are several actors whose names just kept popping up over and over in that list. I decided to make a list of the most-bankable actors and actresses - those thespians involved in the most successful movies of all time. Now, MovieWeb's list is not adjusted for inflation and reflects only US box office sales; if it was adjusted for inflation and reflected worldwide sales, then Gone With the Wind would have been higher up the list, and the Sound of Music would be around number two - lots of great movies don't make the list. That's fine by me.

A bit about my methodology: I made a list of only those actors that had appeared in these top 100 films. Then I eliminated those who had only appeared in one role, even if that role carried over several movies. I wanted my list to reflect the bankability of the actors involved, not the popularity of the role that they played. So, Anthony Daniels (C3P0) and Kenny Baker (R2D2) were out, but Russell Crowe was in; Tobey McGuire was out, but Tommy Lee Jones was in. Then I looked up the gross of each top-100 movie that each actor had been in, and just addded up the box office totals.

Whether my list of actors and actresses reflects the talent of those thespians or the effectiveness of their agents is not for me to say.

There were significantly more actors than actresses in my list. Only nine actresses had two or more roles in the top 100 movies; only Helen Hunt had three roles. In contrast, I counted 36 actors that had two or more roles in the 100 top-grossing films. Below I list the top grossing actors and actresses, along with their roles and the movies they were in. Following each thespian's name is a number, representing the total gross box office (in millions of US dollars, unadjusted for inflation) of the top-100 films in which they appeared.

Ladies first:

#9) Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (348) played Linda Greenlaw in The Perfect Storm and (Maid) Marian Dubois in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

#8) Julia Roberts (361) played Tess Ocean in Ocean's Eleven and Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman.

#7) Karen Allen (435) played Melissa Brown in The Perfect Storm and Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

#6) Sally Field (549) played Mrs. Gump in Forrest Gump and Miranda Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire.

#5) Drew Barrymore (617) played Sugar in Batman Forever and Gertie in ET: the ExtraTerrestrial.

#4) Monica Bellucci (653) played Magdalen in the Passion of the Christ and Persephone in the Matrix: Reloaded.

#3) Helen Hunt (659) played Darcy McGuire in What Women Want, Kelly Frears in CastAway, and Dr. JoAnne 'Jo' Thornton-Harding in Twister.

#2) Cameron Diaz (881) played Princess Fiona in Shrek and Shrek 2 and Mary Jensen in There's Something About Mary.

...drumroll...

and the number one most bankable actress on my list is Liv Tyler, who played Arwen in the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers and the Return of the King, as well as Grace Stamper in Armageddon. Total box office for those four movies: $1234 million.

And now for the guys. I am not going to detail all the roles of all 36 as I did with the women, just those whose total grosses in their top-100 movie efforts exceeded a billion dollars. First, here are the rest of the best:

#36) Ed Harris
#35) Kevin Costner
#34) Russell Crowe
#33) Mark Wahlberg
#32) George Clooney
#31) Morgan Freeman
#29) (tie) Bill Murray
#29) (tie) Joaquin Phoenix
#28) Robin Williams
#27) Bruce Willis
#26) Matt Damon
#25) Will Smith
#24) Ben Stiller
#23) Dustin Hoffman
#22) Geoffrey Rush
#21) Owen Wilson
#20) Wallace Shawn
#19) Tom Cruise
#18) Tommy Lee Jones
#17) Jim Carrey
#16) Jeff Goldblum
#15) Eddie Murphy
#14) Alan Rickman

... and now, the big Baker's Dozen: The following actors have appeared in movies that have total grosses of over 1 billion dollars. Once again, I have listed the total gross (in millions of US dollars) following each actor's name.

#12) (tie) Bill Paxton (1017) played Brock Lovett in Titanic, William Harding in Twister, and Fred Haise in Apollo 13.

#12) (tie) John Cleese (1017) played King in Shrek 2 and Nearly Headless Nick inHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

#11) Mike Myers (1123) played Shrek and Blind Mouse in Shrek and Shrek 2, Austin Powers, Goldmember, Dr. Evil, and Fat Bastard in Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, and Fat Bastard in Austin Powers in the Spy Who Shagged Me.

#10) Sir Ian McKellan (1247) played Eric Lensherr/Magneto in X-Men 2 and Gandalf in the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers and the Return of the King.

#9) Orlando Bloom (1337) played Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Legolas in the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers and the Return of the King.

#8) Christopher Lee (1343) played Saruman in the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers and the Return of the King and Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

#7) Samuel L. Jackson (1360) played Mace Windu in Star Wars I: the Phantom Menace and Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, Lucius Best/Frozone in The Incredibles, and Ray Arnold in Jurassic Park.

#6) James Earl Jones (1389) played Mufasa in The Lion King and Darth Vader in Star Wars IV: A New Hope, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi.

#5) Tom Hanks (1392) played Chuck Noland in CastAway, Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Woody in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 and Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump.

#4) John Rhys-Davies (1471) played Gimli in the Fellowship of the Ring and the Return of the King, Gimli and Treebeard in the Two Towers, and Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

#3) John Ratzenberger (1585) played Underminer in The Incredibles, Fish School in Finding Nemo, Yeti in Monsters, Inc., Hamm in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, and Major Bren Derlin in Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back.

#2) Frank Oz (1597) played Fungus in Monsters, Inc. and Yoda in Star Wars I: the Phantom Menace, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi.

...drumroll...

and the number one most bankable actor on my list is Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo in Star Wars IV: A New Hope, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive and President James Marshall in Air Force One. Total box office for those eight movies: $1856 million.

This list does not include any movies released this year; once Star Wars III has its totals included, the top four actors will likely be Frank Oz, James Earl Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christopher Lee; Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Kevin Costner will drop off the list altogether. And in the next couple years Shrek 3 and the fourth Indiana Jones movie will be released, changing the totals again. However, I don't think I will be producing a list like this anytime soon: the damn thing took me two whole days to put together.

Update: A new list, adjusted for inflation, is here.