The X-Men Cast: Who Has The Most Successful Film Career?

The first ‘X-Men’ hit screens in 2000 and in the 16 years since we’ve had recastings, stalled spin-offs and Vinnie Jones.

But while the movie franchise itself is a billion-dollar juggernaut, which of the series’ stars has had the most lucrative career at the box office when they weren’t starring as an X-Man?

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Ian McKellen
Total box office takings: £5billion

The original Magneto finds himself at the top of the list by almost two-and-a-half billion quid thanks to another cinematic world packed with strange-looking characters and people with special powers.

Playing Gandalf in ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ makes up for all the actor’s less successful indie efforts financially, as does that appearance in ‘The Da Vinci Code’ which we’d totally forgotten about.

Jennifer Lawrence
Total box office takings: £2.51billion

Being Katniss Everdeen in the ‘Hunger Games’ reaped the big bucks, while ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘American Hustle’ did pretty well too.

But while she’s no doubt proud of her performance as Mystique, she’s probably more chuffed that she can go home at night to an Oscar on the mantelpiece.

Brian Cox
Total box office takings: £2.07billion

The Scottish character actor appeared as villain William Stryker in ‘X2’, but he’s been in a slew of blockbusters including ‘The Bourne Supremacy’, ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Red’.

In fact, there’s barely a modern franchise he doesn’t show up in which is why he’s a surprise third place.

Hugh Jackman
Total box office takings: £2.05billion

Yes, the Australian is one of the biggest box office stars in the world, but that’s largely thanks to his multiple appearances as Wolverine across the X-Men universe.

Away from that, he’s relying on ‘Les Miserables’ and lending his voice to cartoons like ‘Happy Feet’ for his total here.

Oscar Isaac
Total box office takings: £1.85billion

Isaac plays the titular nemesis in new movie ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’. As to how he makes this list? Two words: ‘Star Wars’.

Ryan Reynolds
Total box office takings: £1.66billion

He’s been a constant on leading man lists for some time, but until ‘Deadpool’, he’d never really fulfilled his box office potential.

Of course, Deadpool is a mutant and he played a different version of the same character in ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, so they don’t count. Apart from them, his two most successful movies have been ‘The Croods’ and romcom ‘The Proposal’.

Booboo Stewart
Total box office takings: £1.55billion

Who? Thanks to the massive cast of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, you may have even forgotten that Warpath is part of the gang, played by 22-year-old actor Booboo.

But the youngster storms into the number seven position here because of…’Twilight’. Namely, being one of those blokes that wandered round ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’ Parts 1 and 2 with their tops off occasionally turning into wolves.

Halle Berry
Total box office takings: £1.52billion

Berry’s lengthy career adds ballast to her box office total, but other than playing Storm, it’s being Jinx in Bond flick ‘Die Another Day’ and ‘The Flintstones’ that put her this high on the list.

Kelsey Grammer
Total box office takings: £1.34billion

Grammer was the best thing about threequel ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, playing an erudite Hank McCoy who’s completely comfortable in his Beast incarnation.

Away from the X-Men, the actor is obviously famous for playing Frasier on telly, but appearances in ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ and ‘The Expendables 3′, as well as lending his dulcet tones to ‘Toy Story 2′ land him on the list.

Ray Park
Total box office takings: £1.18billion

The martial artist met a sticky end in the original movie as baddie Toad, but it’s his other villainous roles that put him above some of the bigger names on here.

That’s because he’s the man beneath Darth Maul’s red and black make-up in ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’.

Michael Fassbender
Total box office takings: £1.12billion

Sure, taking over as the young Magneto is where most of his money comes from, but the actor was also part of mega-smashes like ‘300’ (remember?), ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Inglourious Basterds’.

James McAvoy
Total box office takings: £704.7million

The Scottish star has snuck onto this list mainly thanks to fellow comic book adaptation ‘Wanted’ and because he played Mr Tumnus in ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’.

He’s great as the young Charles Xavier in ‘X-Men’, but could Professor X read the mind of his other most successful character, the hero of ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’?

Nicholas Hoult
Total box office takings: £618.2million

As Hank McCoy aka Beast, Hoult is one of the most interesting characters in the new X-Men universe, while he was great in blockbuster ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’.

His roles in the spectacularly mediocre ‘Clash of the Titans’ and ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ aren’t quite so magical, but they still managed to flog tickets.

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Image credits: Rex_Shutterstock, 20th Century Fox