THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS has named Samuel L. Jackson the highest-grossing actor of all time.

Who would have “thunk” it.  Samuel Jackson?? Mr. Snake’s on a Plane himself.   But actually….the  more you think about it, the more you realize that he’s been in EVERYTHING!

He’s been in over 100 movies.  When you add them all up, $7.4 billion dollars worth of movies.

Don’t get this twisted.  He’s not the highest earning actor, he’s the highest grossing actor, meaning if you add up the box office takes of all of his movies, they have collectively made more than any other actor.

Half of this comes from two huge franchises; he was in Jurassic Park ($914 million) & he was Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels ($2.4 billion).

Part of his success is that he’s done many movies without being a headliner.  He can add instant drama to any scene.  He was in “Coming to America” when he stuck up the McDowells, he was in “Out of Sight” with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.  In the ending scene he was an inmate that broke out of several prisons that Clooney was coupled with during the very end of the movie.  He’s had several roles like that where screen time is less than 10 minutes.

In the Iron Man films, he rocks and eye patch, a crazy swag and earns a check.

Another plus of playing in these little “bit” parts is it allows him to stay busy on multiple projects.  In 2008 he did 4 movies: The Spirit, Soul Men, Lakeview Terrace, Iron Man, Gospel Hill and Jumper.

At age 62, he’s still got a lot of earning power left.  “The Avengers” will be another big hit as his role as Nick Fury has been the link between the participating comic book franchises. With the anticipated box office draw from Avengers, you better believe there will be a Part two and three.

MEANINGLESS STAT?

I wouldn’t say it’s meaningless, but it means less.  It does not speak to his box office drawing power compared to his peers.  Are you running the theaters to see a movie because it has Samuel Jackson in it?  Even if you’re not you have to admit, every time you see him pop up you are like, “Ohhhh Sh#$%T  it’s Samuel Jackson”.  It’s like the coolest dude in High School just showed up at your cookout.  That’s because he is the coolest dude indeed.  If you forget, just watch Pulp Fiction.

SOME OF SAMUEL JACKSON’S LESSOR ROLES

"Stacks" form Goodfellas

Jackson in Jungle Fever

Jackson as a random stick up guy in "Coming to America"

COSMO