The Surprising Box Office King of 2024-2025

It seems like Pedro Pascal has dominated movies and television across a variety of genres recently, but there is another actor whose movies have earned far more money at the box office in the last two years. Box office totals are not always indicative of a movie’s quality, nor are they an indictment on the talented individuals who perform in them.

However, it’s no coincidence that talented actors and actresses find themselves at the top of box office earnings lists each year; the more talented and adaptable the artist, the easier it is for them to find work. Just as some directors are capable of printing money at the box office based on their individual star power, specific actors and actresses carry their own built-in box office clout.

Still, it’s rare for a single actor to appear in multiple box office juggernauts in the same two-year stretch, with some very rare exceptions (for example, the entire cast of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame). Even stars on high-popularity runs, like the one Pedro Pascal is currently on, don’t always breed box office success based purely on volume.

However, there is one specific star that has amassed an astonishingly high box office total since the beginning of 2024, and it’s decidedly not what most would consider a Hollywood A-lister. Thanks to a string of high-profile supporting roles, talented rising star Paul Walter Hauser has found himself in several hits both on TV and on the silver screen in the last few years.

Paul Walter Hauser Has Been At The Top Of The Box Office List The Last Two Years

Paul Walter Hauser looking suspicious in Americana Exclusive Still Featured ScreenRant

38-year-old actor Paul Walter Hauser has perhaps the most financially successful filmograpy of the last two years, with his movies outearning any other major Hollywood star you can think of. Hauser broke out in 2019 as the eccentric Stingray on Netflix’s Cobra Kai, and that same year starred in the title role of Clint Eastwood’s biographical drama Richard Jewell.

Since then Hauser has made appearances across more than a dozen movies, and even won a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of serial killer Larry Hall on Apple TV+’s true crime drama miniseries Black Bird. His talent and ability to thrive in a number of different genres has led to more total and more prominent roles for Hauser.

In 2024 he was featured in Pixar’s all-time box office hit Inside Out 2 as the voice of the emotion, Embarrassment. A sizable chunk of his box office earnings come from the Disney megahit, as Inside Out 2 grossed more than $1.6 billion worldwide.

Comparing Box Office Earnings – 2024 and 2025
Actor	Total Movie Appearances	Total Est. Box Office Gross
Paul Walter Hauser	8	$2.14 billion
Pedro Pascal	8	$1.3 billion

While it would be easy to dismiss a minor voice role from an actor’s filmography box office total, Hauser is the only actor to appear in two of the top 25 box office grossers of the last two years, and when all is said and done, he may be the only actor to appear in three of the top 30 domestic earners of 2025.

He starred as Harvey Elder, otherwise known as the minor anti-hero Mole Man, in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which has already added over $440 million to his box office total, and is still in theaters. He also starred alongside Liam Neeson in the acclaimed absurdist comedy The Naked Gun, which added another $100 million.

Paul Walter Hauser will also have a supporting role in the Jeremy Allen White-led Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, which is slated for an October 2025 wide release. Assuming it performs similarly to the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Hauser should add between $100-$150 million more to his box office total.

While Paul Walter Hauser may not be the driving force behind the box-office success of the aforementioned movies, it’s no coincidence that he continues to be cast in high-profile, high-quality movies. He’s a talented, adaptable actor who is just as capable of sending dramatic chills down your spine as he is making you laugh as the comic relief in an MCU movie.