The full ranking
A two-time Oscar winner and one of the most reliable draws in the business. The highest-grossing Denzel Washington movies, ranked by worldwide box office.
Gladiator II
Washington drew the year's loudest reviews as the scheming arms dealer Macrinus in Ridley Scott's 2024 sequel, which grossed about $462 million worldwide, the biggest of his career.
American Gangster
Washington plays real-life Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas opposite Russell Crowe's detective in Ridley Scott's 2007 crime epic, which earned roughly $270 million worldwide.
The Equalizer
Washington is Robert McCall, a quiet ex-operative who dispenses lethal justice, in Antoine Fuqua's 2014 action hit, which grossed about $192 million worldwide and launched a trilogy.
The Equalizer 3
McCall takes on the mafia while protecting a small Italian town in the 2023 finale, which earned roughly $191 million worldwide and reunited Washington with Dakota Fanning.
The Equalizer 2
Washington's McCall returns to avenge a friend's murder in the 2018 sequel, the first of his career, which grossed about $190 million worldwide.
Inside Man
Washington is a detective negotiating a brilliantly planned bank heist orchestrated by Clive Owen in Spike Lee's 2006 thriller, which earned roughly $186 million worldwide.
Deja Vu
Washington plays an ATF agent using experimental time-bending surveillance to stop a terrorist attack in Tony Scott's 2006 thriller, which grossed about $181 million worldwide.
Unstoppable
Washington and Chris Pine race to stop an unmanned runaway train in Tony Scott's 2010 thriller, the director's final film, which earned roughly $168 million worldwide.
The Magnificent Seven
Washington leads the gunslingers defending a frontier town in Antoine Fuqua's 2016 remake of the Western classic, which grossed about $162 million worldwide.
Flight
Washington earned an Oscar nomination as an airline pilot who heroically crash-lands a plane while battling addiction, in Robert Zemeckis's 2012 drama that took in roughly $162 million worldwide.
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