Liam Neeson named top-grossing Irish actor at US box office

Liam Neeson has become the highest-grossing Irish actor of all time raking in almost $3bn (€2.69bn) in ticket sales at the US box office.

With a blockbuster catalogue that includes Taken and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Neeson, 64, is ranked at No 21 on the list of the biggest box office draws.

Top of the charts is 73-year-old Harrison Ford with a gross total of almost $5bn thanks mainly to his role in last year’s super-hit Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Ford is closely followed by Samuel L Jackson ($4.6bn) and Morgan Freeman ($4.4bn), according to figures from Box Office Mojo.

Jackson’s role in The Avengers and Freeman’s turn in The Dark Knight helped catapult the veteran actors into the top rankings.

Scarlett Johansson, with ticket sales of $3.3bn, is the highest-grossing female star and the only woman to feature in the top 10.

This is partly due to the 31-year old’s recent hits Captain America: Civil War and The Jungle Book.

Meanwhile, Neeson’s highest grossing movie is Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, raking in a cool $475m since its release in 1999. This is followed by his voiceover work on The Lego Movie ($258m).

His 2009 hit thriller Taken had ticket sales of $145m while spin-offs Taken 2 and Taken 3 grossed $140m and $89m, respectively.

Neeson’s homespun biopic Michael Collins has raked in over $11m since its 1996 release, while Schindler’s List , for which the Ballymena man got an Oscar nomination, grossed over $96m.

Other notable Irish stars on the list include 61-year old Brendan Gleeson. At No 123, his gross box office takings are $1.7bn thanks mainly to his appearance in Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire.

This puts Gleeson slightly ahead of A-listers Russell Crowe (No 134) and Clint Eastwood (No 135).

Michael Fassbender, 39, is at No 257 in the rankings with box office earnings of $1.13bn thanks partly to the success of the X-Men franchise.

Colin Farrell ($1.10bn) can be found at No 267 — with Minority Report the 40-year old actor’s highest grossing flick to date.

Meanwhile, double Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, 22, is at No 608. The Grand Budapest Hotel is her highest grossing film so far in American cinemas ($270m).