‘The Odyssey’ Star Benny Safdie Just Quietly Became the Highest Grossing Actor of the Year, and Almost Nobody Saw It Coming

The summer box office in 2026 has been dominated by a handful of familiar names. Matt Damon carried a three-hour Greek epic to a massive opening, Tom Holland is prepping for another Spider-Man run, and star power from franchise heavyweights has kept theaters busy all year.

Yet buried in the credits of two of the year’s biggest hits is a filmmaker better known for scrappy independent dramas than blockbuster tentpoles. Benny Safdie built his reputation making ‘Good Time’ and ‘Uncut Gems’ alongside his brother Josh, films defined by nervous energy and characters making one bad decision after another, a world away from Greek mythology or animated plumbers.

That range has quietly turned into something remarkable. Combining his supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ with his voice work in ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’ Safdie now sits atop the 2026 box office as the year’s highest-grossing actor.

The Mario sequel alone accounts for the bulk of that total. ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ has crossed 1.011 billion dollars worldwide, becoming the first film of the year to hit that milestone and continuing the franchise’s dominance after the original grossed nearly 1.4 billion dollars in 2023. Safdie voices Bowser Jr, joining returning cast members Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Charlie Day in a lineup that also added Donald Glover and Glen Powell.

‘The Odyssey’ adds significantly more on top of that. Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem has already grossed 639.6 million dollars worldwide after just two weekends in release, with Safdie playing King Agamemnon in an ensemble that includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Zendaya. Given the film’s historically strong holds so far, that total is expected to keep climbing well into August.

Between the two films, Safdie’s combined box office footprint for the year comfortably clears 1.6 billion dollars, an eye opening number for an actor whose career has largely been built on smaller, riskier projects. It also marks his second collaboration with Nolan after playing physicist Edward Teller in ‘Oppenheimer,’ a role that first put him on the director’s radar for something bigger.

What makes the achievement stand out is just how different these two box office wins actually are. One is a family friendly animated sequel built for maximum global reach, while the other is a three hour R rated meditation on war and homecoming aimed squarely at adult audiences and cinephiles. Few actors working today can claim credits spanning both extremes in the same calendar year.

Safdie has never confined himself to one lane anyway. Beyond acting, he has built a directing and writing career of his own, most recently helming ‘The Smashing Machine,’ while continuing to take on prestige supporting roles in projects like ‘Licorice Pizza’ and ‘The Curse.’ That willingness to move between massive studio productions and intimate character work seems to be paying off in a very literal, box office sense this year.

For an actor who spent most of his career behind the camera as much as in front of it, becoming 2026’s top-grossing star is an unlikely milestone, but it speaks to how much trust major filmmakers have placed in him lately. Both Nolan and the team behind Mario clearly saw something worth building around.

With ‘The Odyssey’ still expanding its global total and awards season chatter already building around Nolan’s film, Safdie’s number only figures to grow before the year wraps.

Did you expect Benny Safdie to end up as 2026’s biggest box office draw? Share your thoughts in the comments.