The movies Saldaña has starred in as a leading actress have earned a staggering $15.47 billion—ranking her above every other actor in the world—according to recent data from The Numbers. Following the immense $1.08 billion global success of Avatar: Fire and Ash, she finally overtook her Marvel peer Johansson ($15.4 billion) and Hollywood icon Jackson ($14.6 billion), who ranked above her in 2024.

The 47-year-old is also the first woman in Hollywood to have starred in four projects that have amassed more than $2 billion globally. And 2025 was her year—aside from the success of Fire and Ash, she won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Emilia Pérez, becoming the first Dominican American to win an Academy Award. 

Saldaña took to the internet to celebrate her most recent milestone. “I just want to express my sincerest gratitude for the extraordinary journey that has led me to become the highest-grossing film actor of all time today,” Saldaña said in an Instagram video. “An achievement made possible entirely, entirely by the incredible franchises and the collaborators that I have been fortunate enough to be a part of, to every director who placed their trust in me.”

She also credited the directors of some of her biggest franchise hits—from Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy, to Avengers and Avatar—in challenging her and shaping her as an artist. But it’s her mom who gave her the biggest career advice, Saldaña has previously admitted.

Leaning on this critical advice while breaking barriers in Hollywood

Throughout her 27-year career starring in billion-dollar franchises and indie flicks, Saldaña has made her mark on Hollywood despite the challenges. As a woman and Latina in the movie industry, the actress has faced barriers and felt the pressure to work “twice as hard, because I’m a woman,” she told CNBC Make It. 

In those tough moments, Saldaña leaned on the advice her mother gave her earlier on—which she “didn’t know how powerful that [advice] was going to be” until she had to navigate her own unique obstacles in entertainment. 

“She was always reminding me that I mattered,” Saldana told CNBC Make It in 2019. 

“She was like, ‘Don’t forget about you…Don’t forget about your happiness. Don’t forget about your beauty. Don’t forget about your opinion.’”

Hollywood’s top-grossing actresses and actors 

The five top-grossing actresses and actors in leading roles at the worldwide box office, according to recent data from The Numbers: 

1. Zoe Saldaña: $15.5 billion
2. Scarlett Johansson: $15.4 billion 
3. Emma Watson: $9.3 million
4. Karen Gillan: $8.4 billion
5. Elizabeth Olsen: $8.4 billion 

1. Samuel L. Jackson: $14.6 billion 
2. Robert Downey Jr.: $14.3 billion
3. Chris Pratt: $14.1 billion
4. Tom Cruise: $12.7 billion
5. Chris Hemsworth: $12.2 billion

Carl Benedikt Frey is an economist at the University of Oxford and the author of a famous 2013 paper that estimated automation could put nearly half of U.S. jobs at risk. He paints a troubling picture for the future of white-collar US jobs, saying as AI advances, high-skilled work is more likely to be offshored.

“If AI makes these jobs easier, you will see more activities shifting towards places where labor is cheaper, whether that’s India or the Philippines,” Frey told Fortune. “I think that’s going to put a lot of pressure on people’s wages doing knowledge work.”

Despite his estimation, Frey says earning a college degree is still worthwhile, as it imparts three core skills in which humans hold a competitive edge over AI: complex social interactions, creativity, and navigating complex environments. 

Complex social interactions

AI has made leaps in communication advancements during the past decade. Despite that, Frey says those improvements actually make human-to-human interaction more valuable. 

“The value of social skills have gone up over the past decade, whereas the value of math skills has been trending downwards,” Frey said.

That’s because AI can’t hold a meeting as well as it can solve long division. Communication and emotional intelligence are things AI models cannot replicate—at least for now—maintaining their value in the workplace. A Stanford University study evaluating how AI will shift valued skills in the workplace found communication skills will grow in importance, while high-wage skills like data analysis and accounting will diminish in value.

Creativity

Sure, you can ask ChatGPT to read the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” in the manner of William Shakespeare, or even train an algorithm in impressionist art and ask it to turn your wedding photos into Monet paintings. But human creativity extends beyond memorizing knowledge and regurgitating it in different formats. It takes the ability to think differently and push boundaries.

“If you had asked an LLM in 1900, ‘would humans ever be able to fly?’” Frey said, “it would have concluded that there’s no bird that weighs more than 30 pounds that’s able to get off the ground.”

That is why creativity is becoming a critical trait for workers to have. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 also says creative thinking is becoming more important amid AI’s rise. Frey says active discussion and debate—a cornerstone of a college education—is a critical activity to enhance creative thinking.

Resilience

Frey says AI doesn’t quite possess the resiliency to function like a human. It can provide—with the click of a button—a wide range of information, from a slew of complex legal cases to optimized travel itineraries. But it doesn’t do well in environments that are in constant flux, as is the real world. 

“An undergraduate textbook will not have changed that much in recent decades,” Frey said. “AI thrives as a tutor in those relatively static environments.”

That means flexibility will hold more currency as AI continues to enhance. The WEF’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report also named resiliency a skill that is rising in importance. And business leaders note its importance in the age of AI, saying it is a required trait to navigate the many changes a business faces amid AI adoption. While AI can help “democratize” basic information, such as what is found in a typical 101 course textbook, college prepares students to interpret that information for complex environments, according to Frey.

“In professions where you have more volatility where your job changes more day to day, [those jobs] are less likely to be exposed or automated,” Frey said.

The startup announced on Wednesday that it raised $7 million dollars in a funding round led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from F-Prime, Yolo Investments, and Scytale Digital, which brings their total capital raised to $15 million. Bengani, the founder and CEO of Meld, did not disclose his company’s valuation in an interview with Fortune. 

“It’s very fragmented—there are so many blockchains, there are so many stablecoins, there are so many payment methods,” Bengani said. “It’s ripe for one company to make it easier, and that’s what we want to do.”

When companies and individuals connect to the Meld network, they can buy or settle stablecoins, Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other type of digital asset around the world. The network launched in 2024 and partners with over 50 providers—like Yellow Card and Onmeta—in more than 180 countries, working in over 150 fiat currencies, the company says. People can use the network for remittances and global payroll, among other use cases. In the same way Visa partners with banks around the world for the last mile of transactions, Meld aims to partner with global crypto providers. 

There are two fintech giants, Stripe and Bridge, that provide on and off ramping of crypto. Bengani says that these companies only serve a select few countries, mainly European countries and the United States, whereas Meld is more global. 

The startup generates revenue through transaction fees, although it did not disclose exact numbers. Meld said that it expects to at least quadruple its revenue from last year. It currently has about 15 employees. 

Prior to founding Meld, Bengani worked at Square (as Block was then known) for about five years. There, he felt aligned with the company’s mission of financial inclusion, which he says it accomplished by helping small businesses. He takes those same values to Meld, where he believes he’s promoting financial inclusion by providing people access to crypto at a global scale. 

“It’s fun to make money and feel like you’re making the world a better place, as corny as that sounds,” he said. “If you can give financial access to people on these new rails, that’s pretty cool.”