By D. W. O'Dell

A battle of the titans took place last year, an epic struggle for supremacy in the cinematic arena that counts the most--money. By the end of the year an historic event had taken place, but it was largely unnoticed. For the first time in history, the domestic grosses of the films of a single actor topped the $2 billion mark.

Samuel L. Jackson $1.75 billion

Orlando Bloom $1.65 billion

Christopher Lee $1.63 billion

Hugo Weaving $1.52 billion

Ian McKellen $1.51 billion

All of those names owe a great deal of their box office success to a series of small, obscure art house films that came to be known as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson benefited from his appearances in the second Star Wars trilogy. Bloom of course benefits from both the Rings cycle and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

All of those actors, except for Lee, added significantly to their totals last year. Jackson had Snakes on a Plane (okay, maybe “significantly” is an overstatement); Bloom had the second Pirates of the Caribbean film; Weaving had V for Vendetta and the animated Happy Feet; and McKellen had two blockbusters, X-Men 3 and The Da Vinci Code. Here’s what the top five look like today:

Orlando Bloom $2.08 billion

Ian McKellen $1.94 billion

Samuel L. Jackson $1.79 billion

Hugo Weaving $1.714 billion

Martin Klebba $1.711 billion

Ah, I can hear the cries from here. “Who the heck is Martin Klebba?” I hear you ask. He’s best known as the diminutive janitor on the TV series Scrubs. When he’s not playing semi-recurring bit parts on sitcoms, he is a little person/stuntman who has appeared (often uncredited) in such films as Planet of the Apes, Men in Black 2, and Austin Powers in Goldmember; he was also in the two Pirate films with Bloom…although I’m willing to bet he wasn’t paid quite as much. But, according to the chart, he gets as much credit for the financial success of Goldmember as Mike Meyers.

Christopher Lee fell to seventh place, supplanted by not only Klebba but also Owen Wilson, who should probably be considered the legitimate #5, seeing as most of Klebba’s film roles have been uncredited. I can only assume that You, Me and Dupree was a key component in Wilson’s cumulative box office take of $1.63 billion ( Wilson’s $1.63 billion is ahead of Lee’s because the latter’s box office gross is rounded up). Actually, Wilson got credit for the box office of both Cars and Night at the Museum, both of which gained in excess of $200 million domestic gross in 2006, so he did have a good year.

I thought that Hugo Weaving might be the first one to pass $2 billion, but V for Vendetta wasn’t the smash I’d anticipated. I don’t know why it only grossed $70 million; it was an excellent film that I thought would top $200 million easy. Of those in the top 5, Weaving’s total is based on the fewest number of films – nine - so at least his average is still the highest.

McKellen will pass $2 billion once his next film passes the $56 million mark. He has signed on to star in another X-Men film, Magneto, so that seems like a good bet.

This system of ranking stars based on their cumulative box office is obviously flawed, but it does provide some insight into the film business. Sure the guy at the top is a good lookin’ teen heart throb, but the next four positions are held by a knighted British thespian, an angry middle-aged black man, an unprepossessing looking actor in his 40’s, and a little person. Talk about diversity.