Highest-grossing leading star for comedy films at the global box office

According to The Numbers (www.thenumbers.com), Adam Sandler (USA) is the all-time highest-grossing leading actor in comedies, based on the cumulative worldwide theatre takings of all the comedy movies in which he starred in a leading acting role over his career, with $3,025,747,484 (£2.49 billion) from 34 films as of August 2022.

Sandler's highest-grossing turns are in the first three Hotel Transylvania movies (USA, 2012-18; totalling $1.37 billion), in which he voices Count Dracula. Other lead roles include Lenny in the two Grown Ups movies (USA, 2010-13; $519.2 million), Brenner in Pixels (USA, 2015; $244.0 million) and Michael in Click (USA, 2006; $237.6 million).

The Brooklyn-born actor started out as a stand-up comedian in Boston and by 1990 was a regular on Saturday Night Live. His movie career took off in the mid 1990s, with lead or lead-ensemble roles in Airheads (USA, 1994), Happy Gilmore (USA, 1996), The Wedding Singer (USA, 1998) and The Water Boy (USA, 1998). He has now appeared in a total of 51 movies, grossing $5.55 billion (£4.57) worldwide, as of August 2022.