Zendaya currently leads Hollywood’s 2026 box office rankings. Her three films this year have combined for nearly $2 billion worldwide.
The 29-year-old actress, born Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman on September 1, 1996, in Oakland, California, appears in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and the A24 film The Drama. Those titles have taken in roughly $932 million, $912 million, and $132.5 million, according to figures from Sony Pictures, Universal, and A24.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, opened in late July to $360 million domestically and about $930 million globally in its first weekend, the second-highest worldwide opening ever behind only Avengers: Endgame as confirmed by The Guardian with final weekend figures. Zendaya returns as MJ opposite Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. PostTrack surveys found nearly 30 percent of audiences listed her as a key reason for buying a ticket.
Nolan’s The Odyssey opened July 17 and has passed $915 million worldwide. Zendaya plays the goddess Athena alongside Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, and Holland appearing as Telemachus. Shot entirely on IMAX cameras, the film held the top domestic position for two weekends before Brand New Day arrived and still draws strong numbers in premium formats.
Earlier this year, The Drama, directed and written by Kristoffer Borgli, opened April 3 and closed at $132.5 million globally on a reported $28 million project budget. The film ranked among A24’s better commercial performers and later reached No. 1 on HBO Max in the United States as reported by Deadline with the exclusive streaming launch date.
The three releases put Zendaya ahead of other rising actors in cumulative worldwide grosses for 2026 so far. Her husband, Tom Holland, married in a private ceremony earlier this year — which Hypefresh readers followed through coverage of their secret wedding — shares two of the titles and trails close behind. Supporting actor Benny Safdie topped earlier projections through dual roles in The Odyssey and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie before the latest big opening changed the order.
Zendaya’s spotlight began on Disney Channel with Shake It Up and eventually K.C. Undercover. She moved into feature cinema with Spider-Man: Homecoming in mid-2017, followed by The Greatest Showman, the Dune films as Chani, and HBO’s Euphoria — which brought her two Primetime Emmy Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. Hypefresh reported that the star was set to earn 23 million for her pivotal season in the HBO drama.
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Her 2026 schedule still has room to grow. Dune: Part Three is set for December, adding another major franchise title before the year closes. Trackers such as the movies database The Numbers note that methods differ — some focus on leading roles or score only tallied top-100 films — yet the combining gross of her current releases shows she ranks as the year’s highest-grossing star to date.
Studio executives and analysts point to the paired success of Brand New Day and The Odyssey as evidence that crowds still turn out for big-event cinema releases. The two movies, sharing cast members and audiences, helped deliver one of the strongest domestic weekends on the books in August 2026. Zendaya’s winning run across tentpoles and a solid mid-budget original from A24 has sharpened her standing at a time when Hollywood keeps looking for reliable financing models.
Summer continues and year-end titles are still ahead, so the final 2026 rankings could shift. For now, the numbers from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey, and The Drama have placed Zendaya at the top of the year’s theatrical ledger.
