The 10 Highest-Grossing Don Cheadle Movies, Ranked
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Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1964, Don Cheadle is a Grammy Award-winning actor and filmmaker with a portfolio of at least 57 movies under his belt. His professional career began in 1984 with his appearance in the classic comedy, Moving Violations, where he starred alongside John Murray and Jennifer Tilly. Since then, he has led a fantastic career as an on-screen actor and has amassed a net worth of $40 million. During his time in Hollywood, he has worked with some of the best and most exceptional actors, such as George Clooney, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Gwenyth Paltrow, and names too numerous to mention. Here are the 10 highest-grossing movies starring Don Cheadle, ranked.
Avengers: Endgame
Ever since Terrence Howard was chucked from reprising the role of James Rhodes after his appearance in 2008's Iron Man, Don Cheadle was chosen as his ultimate replacement. From that time onward, he has reprised his role as James Rhodes in Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame. His character, James Rhodes, is a military officer who also operates the War Machine armor, after which he is nicknamed. In the 2019 Avengers: Endgame film, he helps Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson) to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin) from destroying half of the life in the entire Universe. On a budget of $400 million, the film grossed $2.797 billion at the box office.
Avengers: Infinity War
In 2018, Marvel's superhero film, Avengers: Infinity War, was released with a bang at the box office, grossing a whopping $2.048 billion at the international box office. The film follows a band of superheroes, namely Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Spiderman (Tom Holland), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and other members of The Guardians of the Galaxy as they work together to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his henchmen from collecting all the Infinity Stones and killing half the life in the Universe. This was also one of the last Avenger films featuring Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther before his unfortunate passing in 2020.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) were back at it again in 2015 with Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, this time Tony Stark and the Avengers, classified as Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), raid a Hydra facility owned by Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), who has used the scepter previously held by Loki to experiment on humans. Stark and Bruce Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) now have the scepter and find a piece of artificial intelligence inside the gem of the scepter that can be used to complete Stark's "Ultron" global defense program. However, Ultron (James Spader) believes he must eradicate humanity to save the earth and attacks The Avengers. The film grossed a total of $1.395 billion in total.
Iron Man 3
One of Marvel's earlier Iron Man film franchises, Iron Man 3 released in 2013, received a favorable response from critics after grossing $1.215 billion at the box office on a $200 million franchise. The film again follows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who has recently gotten off a victory the previous year after he saved New York City from an alien invasion. As a result of the Battle of New York, he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder causing him frequent panic attacks. To cope, he builds dozens of new Iron Man suits, which offsets his relationship with his girlfriend, Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow). After being rejected by Stark to be in his company, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) goes after his girlfriend, Potts, and President Ellis, Rhodes (Don Cheadle) joins forces with him to stop Killian's reign of terror.
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Captain America: Civil War
In one of the most epic franchises of the Marvel Studios film productions, Captain America: Civil War explains the combative division between Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark after a building of Wakandan humanitarian workers were killed in Lagos, Nigeria while attempting to stop Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo) from stealing a biological weapon from a lab. In response to the accidental deaths, U.S Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), passes the Sokavia Records, which will cause the UN to oversee The Avengers. Tony Stark supports the idea of being overseen, while Rogers prefers to work independently from the UN, which drives a rift between the two. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) also arrests Stark, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) after T'Challa vows to kill Barnes for blowing up his father, T'Chaka (John Kani). The film was a major success and grossed $1.151 billion at the box office.
Iron Man 2
2010s Iron Man 2 was the first film of the franchise that Cheadle found himself starring in after the release of Terrence Howard. It follows the main star of the entire franchise, Tony Stark (Robert Donwey Jr.) who has recently revealed to the world his identity as Iron Man. He is quickly becoming a media superstar and it has attracted the attention of Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), also known as Whiplash, who begins building his own arc reactor similar to Stark's. Stark also learns that the palladium core in the arc reactor that powers his suit is slowly poisoning him. While competing in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, Stark is attacked by Vanko in the middle of the race and seriously damages the Iron Man suit. Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is impressed by Vanko and fakes his death so he can replicate Stark's suits. Then Stark and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) get into a suit-fighting showdown after Stark becomes drunk at a house party. After their brief rivalry, Rhodes and Stark work together to defeat Hammer and Vanko. The film grossed $621.156 million at the box office.
Ocean's Eleven
Featuring an exceptional ensemble of some of Hollywood's most elite actors, Ocean's Eleven has come to be considered one of the most hilarious heist comedies of the 21st century. Released in 2001, the film follows Danny Ocean (George Clooney) who has recently been released from prison and immediately goes to see his partner-in-crime, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt). The career criminals plan a heist and now want to propose their plan to a former casino owner, Rueben Tishkoff (ElliotnGould). The elaborate plan involves simultaneously robbing the MGM Grand, the Bellagio, and the Mirage casinos, the largest score being the vault in the Bellagio, which would have a vault containing $150,000,000 on the night of a boxing match. To assist in their master plan, they recruit other master criminals, namely Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon); Frank Catton (Bernie Mac); Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk Malloy (Scott Caan); Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison); Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle); Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), and "The Amazing" Yen (Shaobo Qin). The movie grossed $450.7 million globally.
Ocean's Twelve
Three years after the Ocean's Eleven followed the sequel in 2004, Ocean's Twelve, in the first movie series, we learned that Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his band of skilled criminals made away with the $160 million from the Bellagio casino. The only problem was that Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the owner of all three casinos they stole from (and the boyfriend of Danny's ex-wife, Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts)) is demanding all the money to be returned, with $38 million interest. Realizing they don't have half of what Benedict is asking, they plan a heist in London but are beat to it by another master thief called François Toulour/The Night Fox (Vincent Cassel). Rusty's old girlfriend, Isabel Lahiri (Catherin Zeta-Jones) is a detective and is on to both Danny and his crew as well as The Night Fox. The sequel was great but didn't earn as much as the original film, grossing $362.9 million at the box office.
Rush Hour 2
Where did Chris Tucker go? During the 1990s and early 2000s, Chris Tucker was one of the funniest and most underrated comedians who took television by storm. One of his most memorable films was the Rush Hour 2 movie franchise, where he starred as Detective James Carter alongside Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan). Carter is visiting Lee in Hong Kong on vacation, but he returns to cop duty when a bomb at the US Consulate General kills two US Customs agents. While searching for leads, Carter and Lee are led to Carter's informant, an ex-convict named Kenny (Don Cheadle) who runs a Chinese restaurant/gambling den. They find that the leader of the triads, Ricky Tan (John Lone), is behind the bombing. The film grossed $347.4 million at the box office.
Ocean's Thirteen
Released in 2013, this was the last of the movie franchise involving the original cast of actors and characters This time the film surrounds Danny's close friend, Rueben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), who has invested in a hotel-casino building on the Las Vegas Strip, against Danny's advice. Casino owner and big wig Willy Bank (Al Pacino) has his team of thugs force Tishkoff to sign over his ownership stake. The encounter leaves Tishkoff bedridden from a heart attack. Danny vows to get back at Big Willie for what he has done. The film grossed $311.74 worldwide.
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Sources: NY Times, BBC, Roger Ebert, Empire Online, Reel Views
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