2026 most bankable actors

Following this week's historic news that Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day has officially crossed the $2.22 billion mark globally, effectively knocking James Cameron's Titanic out of the all-time top five highest-grossing films, the race for the industry's most profitable talent has been completely rewritten. To shed more light on this topic, I am sharing our new report revealing the most bankable movie stars of 2026.

To map out the most bankable movie stars, the team at PlayersTime combined the box office earnings across each actor’s and actress’ major 2025-2026 theatrical releases. Recognising that modern stardom extends beyond the movie theatre, we also integrated active Instagram follower counts to measure digital reach alongside monthly Google search volumes to capture real-time public interest. Finally, we categorised all 200 names by age and country of origin, creating a definitive snapshot of global movie star power, with the full dataset used available on Google Drive via this link.

Our brand-new data reveals a shocking change at the very top of our leaderboard, where Jon Bernthal has emerged with a monumental $3.87 billion estimated box office to rank as the world's most bankable actor over the past year, driven primarily by the record-shattering action of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Other key takeaways from the report:

• Jon Bernthal has pulled off an incredible theatrical hot streak, bringing in a monumental $3.87 billion box office across his 2025-2026 movie roles. This historic run is driven by a massive multi-franchise double-header: he brought his gritty Frank Castle (The Punisher) into Spider-Man: Brand New Day, while simultaneously starring as Menelaus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Factor in his high-profile releases like The Amateur and The Accountant 2, and Bernthal is officially the crown king of modern box office dominance.
• Ranking as the second most profitable movie talent is Zendaya with a staggering total box office of $3.80 billion across her recent roles. This record-breaking surge is driven primarily by her performances in the unstoppable Spider-Man and Nolan’s The Odyssey. Off-screen, her highly publicised wedding to Tom Holland officially cemented them as the ultimate real-life Hollywood power couple, making their side-by-side dominance at the top of the charts even more fascinating to watch.
• Taking the third spot is Tom Holland, who pulled in a massive $3.67 billion across his 2025-2026 releases and now officially ranks as the UK's number one movie star. Interestingly, he has starred in every single theatrical release his wife took part in this year, creating an unprecedented box office correlation. By locking down their roles as Peter Parker and MJ in Spider-Man and matching each other step-for-step in Christopher Nolan’s ensemble, this real-life power couple didn't just share a screen, they effectively pooled their digital fanbases to systematically corner the entire global movie theater economy.
• Sydney Sweeney is the most Googled movie star, completely obliterating the competition with a staggering 12 million monthly Google searches. Her massive online popularity comes from a perfect mix of Euphoria hype, a steady stream of hit movies, and viral red-carpet moments. She leaves a massive gap ahead of Jacob Elordi (4.3M) and Pedro Pascal (4M).
• Meanwhile, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson rules not only as the most followed movie star in our analysis, but as the most followed American man on Instagram with a massive 382 million followers. He is followed by Zendaya, who commands 176 million followers.

‘Week after week, the conversation has been stuck on a loop: Spider-Man, The Odyssey, Spider-Man, The Odyssey... and this weekend just gave us more of the exact same madness. With Spider-Man literally sinking Titanic at the global theatre box office, the traditional metrics of Hollywood star power have been totally dismantled. Our numbers show a massive generational shift where iconic pop-culture pairings and interconnected universes are driving historic ticket sales.

Yet, the real shockwave is Jon Bernthal completely hijacking the absolute number-one spot as the past year's most bankable actor. By silently embedding himself as a central force in both the MCU and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Bernthal has proven that versatility and multiple high-profile franchise assets, including The Amateur and The Accountant 2, can out-earn even the industry's biggest frontline couples. Enjoy the crown for now, though, because Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Three lands on December 18th, and that release is bound to completely upend the leaderboard all over again.’

- comments Diliana Hristova, data analyst at PlayersTime.

More detailed findings, including full movie star rankings, social media breakdowns, and the complete dataset, are available in the full report. The raw data can also be accessed via the Google Drive link. You are welcome to use the material or visuals in your publication, provided that appropriate credit and a link to the original PlayersTime report are included.