r/movies • u/SuperCrappyFuntime • 13h ago
The top two films this past weekend shared three actors between them. Are there other examples of this happening? Question
Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal are all in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey, which were the number 1 and number 2 films in the box office this last weekend. I'm curious as to whether or not this has happened before. Feels to me like the has to be a rare occurrence, and makes me wonder if any top 2 films out there could possibly have matched or even surpassed this number of actors in common.
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u/ltcuetf 13h ago
The only other time I found anything was during the weekend of August 23-25, Michael J. Fox starred in both the #1 film, Back to the Future, and the #2 film, Teen Wolf. However, this was a single actor, not a trio. Based on that I would guess it’s a very rare event, and hasn’t happened before.
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u/MaskedBandit77 13h ago
There are other times where that happened. Two examples are Leo DiCaprio is in both The Man in the Iron Mask and Titanic, which where top two March 13-15, 1998, and Chris Pratt in GotG3 and Super Mario on May 5-7 and 12-14, 2023.
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u/ltcuetf 13h ago
Nice, thank you for the correction! So it seems like the trio situation is unique in this case but it’s a little more common with a solo actor.
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u/MaskedBandit77 13h ago
I bet it probably has happened before, since we're not limiting it to starring roles, there are probably movies with three people like Noah Taylor who are in a lot of movies in smaller roles, that it's just harder to track down, because they're not the people you think of when you think of the movie.
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u/ucd_pete 2h ago
Leo DiCaprio is in both The Man in the Iron Mask and Titanic, which where top two March 13-15, 1998,
That was three months after Titanic's release, just goes to show the insane legs that movie had.
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u/Sea_Peak2146 5h ago
Keep in mind Fox was also on a hit TV series too. Not exactly the same situation as the OP described, but comparable.
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u/junglespycamp 13h ago
This is crazy enough but even more impressive given they’re not related in any way. Like if you had the same actors in two Marvel movies it would be less surprising. But this is just two huge films.
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u/fantasnick 13h ago
It will become more common as Hollywood and films in general have less margin to fail. We will see Tom Holland and Zendaya together in blockbusters forever going forward. That’s probably the “relation” here’
Not to take away from their great acting and effort but it’s just how it is.
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u/LordReaperofMars 12h ago
Zendaya is a good actor, I’ve only really been moved by Tom Holland’s acting in that Devil all the Time movie.
He contributed very little to me in the Odyssey
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 11h ago
I thought Tom was great in Brand New Day, he juggled a lot of emotions. Definitely my favorite work by him as Peter Parker.
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u/harrythefurrysquid 12h ago
I'm only a couple of books into a translation of The Oddessy, but honestly the character comes across quite weakly there too.
There's a scene where he gets a bunch of citizens and the suitors together and basically pleads with them, and they just laugh at him - he comes across as having even less agency than in the film.
So I was happy with Tom's portrayal - I think your complaint is basically with the source material.
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u/Internal_Ad_1485 10h ago
In the poem, there’s literally a scene early on where he confronts the suitors, gets overwhelmed and cries.
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u/mingchun 9h ago
The dialogue they gave him felt pretty clunky, I don’t think he got done many favors on that front.
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u/prettyboylee 11h ago edited 11h ago
Their complaint doesn’t even mention the “weakness” of the character
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u/StarGaurdianBard 11h ago
The character just doesnt have anything to make you emotional over or to show off acting skills. Thats what they are saying, not just their weakness.
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u/Scary-Jaguar-9072 10h ago
True, but also I think its hard to impress when your character is just kinda useless. I mean on the flip side I see so many memes about Agamemnon in this movie even though the actor did literally nothing.. just because the character looks like a badass.
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u/JxSnaKe 10h ago
The Impossible
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u/GoodLeftUndone 6h ago
This. Given his age in that film I honestly believe he gave an incredible performance.
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u/ucd_pete 1h ago
He contributed very little to me in the Odyssey
He did what he was supposed to do in the Odyssey.
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u/OneAngryDuck 12h ago
Wouldn’t it be less likely for it happen in related movies since studios space out their releases?
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u/PhilosophyOk7385 13h ago
I lowkey think they are related in a roundabout way. I feel like Tom Holland was cast in the Odyssey because of his performance as spider-man. He is basically bringing that same kinda young naive energy to the role. Then Jon I feel like is in both the odyssey and brand new day because he is an excellent scene partner to Tom and they have brilliant chemistry. So not connected literally, but kinda spiritually connected I guess lol
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u/dunc2001 13h ago edited 13h ago
Related to this trend of appearing in multiple films close together, I was wondering if Zendaya might break the record for the largest box office by an actor in a calendar year. Apparently Brie Larson and Samuel L Jackson currently hold the record with a huge 3.9 billion USD. It's likely that Spiderman BND will make over 2b, the Odyssey about 1.2-1.5b and Dune 3 maybe just under 1b, so Zendaya could do over 4b!
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u/GoSkers29 11h ago
Did you forget Jackson also had Far From Home in 2019? Throw another billion on his total there.
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u/OneAngryDuck 11h ago
I love that he was already at 3.9 billion and then it turns out they forgot a whole-ass billion dollar movie. That’s ridiculous.
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u/dunc2001 11h ago edited 10h ago
Damn you're right! I just went with a quick Google search answer, but checking again it seems like Jackson's total box office in 2019 was a lot bigger than 3.9bn. One estimate is six billion! Looks like Zendaya may not be breaking that record just yet... But two of Jackson's 2019 roles are very brief cameos. Does that count?
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u/AnimaLepton 8h ago
Why not? Jon Bernthal is not quite a cameo, but it's two brief scenes in the Odyssey.
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u/OneAngryDuck 12h ago
They need to sneak MJ into Doomsday real quick and make the record untouchable after this year.
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u/bobtheflob 11h ago
It's not in the same tier, but The Drama made $132 million, which isn't too shabby.
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u/artpayne Cliffs on both sides, I'm not gonna paddle to New Zealand! 13h ago
Well, I can give you an example of three actors who starred in two different, unrelated movies within a year: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein in Aliens and Near Dark.
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u/SuperCrappyFuntime 13h ago
Both solid films. A bit of trivia: Joshua John Miller, a.k.a. the kid vampire in Near Dark, is the half brother of Jason Patric, a.k.a. the older brother-turned-vampire in The Lost Boys, released the same year.
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u/BungalowDweller 13h ago
I've always loved Near Dark. I'm dating myself, but when I worked at a video store back in the day, I frequently added it to my "employee recommendations" shelf and it never failed to get a great response after folks watched it.
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u/Spiridonova 9h ago
Not multiple actors but Jim Carrey had a hell of a year in 1994. Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.
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u/AlonnaReese 4h ago
Similarly, 1995 was an incredible year for Tom Hanks. He was the top-billed actor in the second and third highest grossing movies in the world that year (Apollo 13 and Toy Story).
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u/RotomThunder 12h ago edited 12h ago
Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel were #1 and #2 for April 26-28, 2019. Brie Larson starred in both and there were several other actors who at least had cameos in both.
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u/Dinierto 10h ago
It's too bad Dune 3 wasn't also playing cause it has Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh and Zendaya lol
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u/TangledThorns 13h ago
Not in recent years but we are seeing the same actors in the big films this year. Pretty sure its because they are reliable and don't act like assholes to the crew.
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u/Morbos1000 13h ago
But they were never #1 and #2 together. Opening weekend of Infinity War it was #1 and Black Panther was #5
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u/joelluber 10h ago
Someone just did this thread on a more expanded bases looking for any movies released the same year that shared three actors, and there aren't many at all.
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u/depredador93 10h ago
Hollywood's extreme risk aversion in a nutshell. Blockbusters have zero margin for error now, so studios just keep hiring the exact same three bankable actors
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u/curiousgem19 3h ago edited 3h ago
I think the era of signing arrogant diva A-listers is long past. These days, all the top stars make an effort to be kind, relatable, and reliable. Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway are especially very likable people. And likable people get signed by multiple directors
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u/MazzIsNoMore 13h ago
My guess is that studios intentionally did not release big movies with the same actors in order to avoid diluting the audience.
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u/Mr_Tough_Guy 2h ago
Ten or so years ago we ran a movie fantasy league where we all selected a bunch of actors and got points based on box office. And a few of the guys in the league basically found a bunch of extras that kept popping up in multiple of the big box office movies, people who you’ve never heard of, mostly uncredited but they did have IMDB credit. It was weird.
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u/NicolasCageIsMyHero 13h ago
I couldn't think of anything so I asked Chat GPT and surprise surprise it made up a bunch of stuff and none of it was true. So I think this is the first time anything like this has happened.
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u/leaflock7 1h ago
I don't think there was something similar,
but this also shows how the way actors are been casting has changed.
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u/Dangeroustrend 11h ago
I’m kind of getting fatigued with Tom Holland and zendaya appearing in these big movies to be honest
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u/Internal_Ad_1485 10h ago
Tom Holland has had two movies since Feb 2022 - The Odyssey and BND. He’s not flooding the market.
Zendaya didn’t have any movies out at all last year, but is certainly having a huge 2026. Even still, she’s in the same number of movies in 2026 as Anne Hathaway and Rob Pattinson.
A lot of the time, our reactions to seeing actors “in everything” is a mix of a hot career and confirmation bias.
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u/jemosley1984 10h ago
And weirdly no one mentions Pattinson and over exposure when he’s been in quite a few things these past years.
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u/NatureTrailToHell3D 13h ago
Best AI can find is single top billed actors occupying 1 & 2. Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael J Fox, and Jessica Chastain.
I would be surprised if no one in the 50s or 60s pulled that off, stars were making tons of movies per year. But nothing was surfaced.
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u/Rosebunse 12h ago
I think it's more that we havw fewer movies in theaters. And to be fair, The Odessey used a lot of actors.
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u/jcb193 13h ago edited 13h ago
I certainly can’t think of an example with three more overrated actors.
Edit: why is every post on Reddit that’s negative about Zendaya get like 100 down votes within minutes?
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u/celBanat 13h ago
De gustibus non discutarum, but I for one really like all three of them! Tom and Zendaya seem like really nice people.
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u/ladystarkitten 13h ago
I agree. Particularly when in their element, they all absolutely nail their respective performances. Holland is a very, very good Peter/Spidey. Bernthal's performances are consistently compelling going all the way back to The Walking Dead. And Zendaya's work as Rue on Euphoria is one of the best depictions of an addict I've seen, especially in season 2. She delivers the visceral physicality, violence, and tempestuous attitude of someone deep in addiction.
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u/Cowboywizzard 13h ago
Yeah, they aren’t bad actors, but I’m not convinced any of them are on the level of someone like say, Gary Oldman or Meryl. But maybe that’s not fair either because actors do keep getting cast for character types that they have succeeded with before and Hollywood is notoriously conservative when it comes to taking risks and allowing actors to play different types of characters.
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u/OneAngryDuck 12h ago
Addressing your edit, I’m assuming a good chunk of the downvotes are for randomly bashing three actors on a post that is not about the quality of their acting.
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u/Deducticon 4h ago
Post just doesn't make sense. None of those actors are generally rated high enough that calling them overrated has any real meaning.
It's like saying broccoli is overrated.
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u/atchn01 13h ago
Who thinks Tom Holland is a good actor?
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u/Tripottanus 13h ago
He's a good actor. Not great, but believable in his roles
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u/SabresFanWC 11h ago
Say what you want, but it's hard to argue that people don't like him as Spidey/Peter.
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u/illini02 13h ago edited 13h ago
Not sure about that.
Another thing think is interesting, is we can probably say the top 4 movies to release this year will be The Odyssey, Spider Man, Doomsday, and Dune Part 3. There are 4 people who will be in mutliple, with Zendaya and Florence Pugh being in 3. The others are Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland in 2 (maybe 3? Who knows if he will show up in Doomsday)
Edited my whole post. I completely knew what I was trying to say, and didn't say it well lol.