Zendaya is one of the most well-known and talented young actresses in Hollywood, but the run she has coming up in 2026 could see her cement herself atop the list of Hollywood’s biggest box office earners. Since her Disney Channel breakout in 2010, Zendaya has steadily become a mainstay in both massive franchises and gripping original movies, cementing her status as a true A-lister. She’s played key roles in some of the highest-grossing movies of the last decade, and she’s set to do it again this year.
What will set Zendaya’s 2026 apart from the rest of her career is a perfect storm of blockbuster releases, each of which has a very realistic chance of finishing within the top five movies of the year at the box office. She’ll reprise her roles as both the MCU’s MJ (Michelle Jones-Watson) in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the fiery Fremen warrior Chani in Dune: Part Three, while also reaching back to hallowed antiquity to play the Greek goddess Athena in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Depending on who you ask, those three juggernauts might be the three most highly anticipated films of the year. They are all locks to dominate the global box office upon their release, although to what capacity remains to be seen. Zendaya’s involvement in all three movies puts her in a unique position, as she will have an outside chance of breaking a box office record most would have thought unbreakable.
Zendaya Is Chasing Brie Larson’s Single-Year Box Office Record From 2019
Each of Zendaya’s three major blockbusters in 2026 has a fairly strong chance of crossing the billion-dollar threshold at the box office, which could put her within striking distance of Brie Larson’s record-breaking box office total for a single year for an actress from 2019. In that year, she starred in both Captain Marvel ($1.131 billion) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.799 billion), along with Destin Daniel Cretton’s biographical legal drama Just Mercy ($50 million). When the year came to a close, Larson’s movies had accumulated roughly $3.98 billion, giving her the highest total by an actress in a single year.
Zendaya has a very realistic chance of surpassing that total depending on how the box office breaks later in the year. Spider-Man has long been one of the most reliable box office bets, and Peter Parker’s last solo(ish) adventure in the MCU, Spider-Man: No Way Home, earned a whopping $1.9 billion. It might be too much to ask for Brand New Day to exceed that number, but with a relatively unchallenged July 31st release date, $1.5 billion seems perfectly reasonable.
Dune: Part Three will need to continue the franchise’s trend of surpassing its predecessor to cross the billion-dollar mark, but with the promise of an epic conclusion to the sci-fi saga, that is well within its reach. Dune grossed $411 million worldwide, while the acclaimed Dune: Part Two landed with $715 million. Dune: Part Three might be a lock for $1 billion if it wasn’t slugging it out head-to-head with Avengers: Doomsday during the holiday season. A “Dunesday” cross-audience bump is possible, but cannibalization can’t be ruled out there.
The Odyssey is the most intriguing of the three from a box office standpoint, because it’s difficult to ascertain what its ceiling really is. Christopher Nolan’s name recognition, along with jaw-dropping critic scores and award-season buzz, helped the three-hour historical epic Oppenheimer to come up just short of $1 billion in 2023. Those elements are all in place for The Odyssey, with the notable differences that there promises to be far more action, a staggeringly huge budget, a star-stuffed cast, and even more momentum as the follow-up to Oppenheimer.
Altogether, the three movies conservatively seem like a lock for at least $3.5 billion, with the higher end of that scale pushing well over $4 billion. It will truly be a race to the finish line for Zendaya to meet Brie Larson’s record of $3.98 billion in a single year, and the difference may wind up being the box office return for Zendaya’s black comedy drama The Drama, which releases in April.
Zendaya’s 2026 Is Chasing Another MCU Star for the Biggest Single Year Ever
While Brie Larson’s record for the biggest single year for an actress is within striking distance, it will be nearly impossible for Zendaya to match the largest single year by any actor or actress ever. In a single year, Samuel L. Jackson appeared in three Marvel movies (Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home), the superhero thriller Glass, the modern remake of the action comedy Shaft, and even made a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
When you add up Jackson’s entire 2019, you get a number north of $5.3 billion. Even taking away Rise of Skywalker, in which Jackson didn’t actually appear on-screen (he had a single line as the Force ghost of Mace Windu), he still has the biggest single box office return with over $4.2 billion. It seems nearly impossible that Zendaya’s monumental 2026 will allow her to catch Jackson, but Brie Larson’s gargantuan 2019 box office total is definitely within striking distance.