Some of film's most iconic moments have come from amazing acting duos, like Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy to Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. These duos bring scripts and scenes to life, an act of total immersion through their raw on-screen chemistry.
From comedic duos that have you in stitches to dramatic pairs whose on-screen tension leaves you on the edge of your seat, which are the biggest acting partnerships?
The team at Spin Genie UK has delved into a wealth of data to answer that question. We’ve looked at some of the biggest current names in film to get the best film pairings. We have examined the number of movies they’ve appeared in together, how much they earned at the box office, their awards, and their critical reception.
Which acting pair has the best on-screen chemistry?
1. Robert Downey Jr. & Scarlett Johansson
On-screen chemistry score: 8.80/10
In first place for film acting duos with the best on-screen chemistry, we have Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson, with a score of 8.8 out of 10. The pair are well known for their appearances in MCU films, but they also appeared in the 2014 film Chef.
The pair ranked in the top five for acting duos that appeared in the most films together (seven) and the pair with the highest box office earnings from the films they appeared in together (£9.8 billion). They also appeared in the top five for duos with the highest combined runtime for their films together (16 hours 39 minutes) and the highest average Rotten Tomatoes audience score (86%).
2. Scarlett Johansson & Elizabeth Olsen
On-screen chemistry score: 8.08/10
Scarlett Johansson also appears in second place, this time with Elizabeth Olsen. This pair have only appeared in Marvel films together so far, such as Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The pair ranked well among film acting duos with the highest combined box office earnings from the films they’ve appeared in together, at £9.8 billion. They also appeared highly for acting duos with the highest critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, with 87% and 89%, respectively.
3.Robert Downey Jr. & Samuel L. Jackson
On-screen chemistry score: 7.97/10
Another pair well-known for their acting collaborations in the MCU, Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson, take third place. It is worth noting that the first film they appeared in together was Anthony Michael Hall’s Hail Caesar, which was released in 1994 — not to be confused with the 2016 film Hail Caesar!
The pair ranked highly among film acting duos that had appeared in the most films together, with seven total, the highest box office earnings for those films at £9.2 billion. The pair also shared one of the longest partnerships on screen, with the films they appear in together totalling a run time of 16 hours and 4 minutes. The films they appear in together also averaged a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 85%, just within the top ten.
The acting pairs with the most extensive partnerships
1. Samuel L. Jackson & Scarlett Johansson
8 films together
Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson are the first of two acting duos to have appeared in the most films together. The pair has appeared in eight films together during their careers. Many of these films were part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Captain America: Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame. The pair also featured in the 2008 neo-noir superhero film The Spirit.
2. Javier Bardem & Penélope Cruz
8 films together
Sharing first place, also having appeared in eight films together, we have married couple Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. The couple first met in 1992 when they starred in their first film together, Jamón, Jamón. However, it wasn’t until filming Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2007 that they reconnected and married secretly in 2010.
3. Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter
7 films together
Our first acting duo to share third place is Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, who have starred in seven films together. The pair have established their relationship as long-time collaborators and close friends, so much so that Depp is the godfather of two of Bonham Carter’s children. The pair featured in 2010’s Alice in Wonderland and then in the sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), as well as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007).
3. Robert Downey Jr. & Samuel L. Jackson
7 films together
Another familiar pairing from the MCU's powerhouse days is Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson. The two featured in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 together, as well as many of the Avengers films, with Downey Jr. portraying Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) and Jackson as Nick Fury. The pair was also featured in the 1994 comedy film Hail Caesar, which was their first time together on screen.
3. Robert Downey Jr. & Scarlett Johansson
7 films together
Third, we again have Robert Downey Jr. and, this time, Scarlett Johansson. These two have starred in many films from the MCU, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War. The two also starred in the 2014 comedy-drama Chef alongside Jon Favreau, another MCU colleague.
The actors with the most successful partnership
1. Samuel L. Jackson & Scarlet Johansson
Total box office gross worldwide earnings: £10.4 billion
In first place for the highest-earning acting duo, we have Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlet Johansson. The pair, having starred in eight films together, have racked up a total combined earnings of £10.4 billion. The bulk of this comes from Avengers: Endgame, the second-highest-grossing box office film of all time.
2. Robert Downey Jr. & Scarlett Johansson
Total box office gross worldwide earnings: £9.8 billion
Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson take second place, with a combined total box office earnings of £9.8 billion. Again, the bulk of this comes from high-earning MCU films such as the Avengers titles, which are among the top 20 highest-earning films of all time. The rest of their earnings together come from Chef, which earned just under £50.6 million worldwide.
3. Robert Downey Jr. & Samuel L. Jackson
Total box office gross worldwide earnings: £9.2 billion
Rounding out the top three acting duos with the most profitable partnership, we have Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson. Once again, the duo has appeared in many MCU movies, including the high-earning Avengers films and Iron Man and Iron Man 2, though these two didn’t earn nearly as much as the Avengers titles.
The actors with the most awarded partnership
1. Gary Oldman & Cillian Murphy
576 awards won
In first place, Gary Oldman and Cillian Murphy are the acting duo whose films have won the most awards combined. The pair appeared in Christopher Nolan’s massively successful 2023 film Oppenheimer, which collected 352 awards. The pair also appeared in Nolan’s beloved Dark Knight trilogy, which combined won 224 awards.
2. Michael Caine & Cillian Murphy
451 awards won
We again have Cillian Murphy in second place, but this time with Michael Caine, whose films together have won 451 awards. The pair also appeared in Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Dunkirk (2017), and Inception (2010), with the former winning 68 awards and the latter 159.
3. Tom Hardy & Cillian Murphy
272 awards won
Cillian Murphy appears in the top three for a third time, partnering with Tom Hardy on this occasion. Although the pair have only appeared in three films together, those films have won 272 awards. The most significant contributor was Inception, with 159 awards. They also appeared in Dunkirk and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
The actors with the lengthiest partnership
1. Samuel L. Jackson & Scarlett Johansson
Total runtime: 18 hours and 20 minutes
Again, in first place, we have Sam Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, whose films together have a total runtime of 18 hours and 20 minutes. The pair has appeared in many MCU films, which are known to be lengthy, especially with those post-credit scenes. They also appeared together in The Spirit, which had a runtime of 1 hour and 43 minutes, giving them the lengthiest film partnership.
2. Robert Downey Jr. & Scarlett Johansson
Total runtime: 16 hours and 39 minutes
Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson are second for the lengthiest acting duo partnership. Their seven films have a combined runtime of 16 hours and 39 minutes. The longest is Avengers: Endgame, which runs for 3 hours and 1 minute. The shortest film they appeared in together was the 2014 film Chef, which runs for 1 hour and 54 minutes.
3. Robert Downey Jr. & Samuel L. Jackson
Total runtime: 16 hours and 4 minutes
Robert Downey Jr. appears again, this time alongside Samuel L. Jackson. The pair's acting partnership has the third-longest runtime, at 16 hours and 4 minutes across seven films. Each runs for at least 1 hour and 40 minutes, with the shortest being Hail Caesar (1994), the pair's first film together.
The actors with the most critically acclaimed partnership
1. Tom Hardy & Cillian Murphy
Average Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 89%
Getting a high score on Rotten Tomatoes isn’t always easy, but it’s the status quo for Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. The acting duo has appeared in three films together, which have averaged an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes critic scores. Dunkirk has the highest score of their movies, 92%, while Inception and The Dark Knight Rises scored 87%.
2. Gary Oldman & Emma Watson
Average Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 88%
Gary Oldman and Emma Watson take second place. The duo has averaged an 88% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes across the four films they’ve appeared in together. Their highest-rated film on the site is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), which got a critic score of 96%.
3. Scarlett Johansson & Elizabeth Olsen
Average Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 87%
Scarlett Johansson and Elizabeth Olsen round out the three acting pairs with the most critically acclaimed partnerships. The duo has an average critic score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes across their five films. Their highest rated was Avengers: Endgame at 94%, followed by the second and third Captain American films, scoring 90%.
The actors with the best fan reception
1. Scarlett Johansson & Elizabeth Olsen
Average Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 89%
In first place, Scarlett Johansson and Elizabeth Olsen have the best fan reception on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average audience score of 89%. Their highest-rated titles, which they’ve starred in together, are Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with a 92% audience score.
2. Robert Downey Jr. & Elizabeth Olsen
Average Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 88%
Robert Downey Jr. and Elizabeth Olsen take second place, with an average audience score of 88% from Rotten Tomatoes. The duo have appeared in four films together, including Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: Civil War, all scoring 89% and higher.
3. Tom Hardy & Cillian Murphy
Average Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87%
The acting partnership with the third-best fan reception is Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, with an average audience score of 87% across three films. Inception scored their highest score at 91%, with The Dark Knight Rises scoring 90% and Dunkirk scoring 81%.
Methodology
Using Ranker's list of top actors and actresses, we took down the top 30 of each to build our initial list.
We then recorded the filmographies of each actor and actress using their Wikipedia pages. We excluded any titles in which they had no acting role (just a producer, executive, etc.) and any titles that have yet to be released.
We made a list of unique pairings for each actor and actress and then calculated, using Google Apps Script, how many films each pairing had appeared in together using their filmography. We also noted the title of each movie that the pairings starred in together. From this list, we took the 32 pairs that had appeared in the most films together to reveal which actor pairings had appeared in the most.
We then used Box Office Mojo to source the original release worldwide box office earnings of each film in USD. We used the US Inflation Calculator to get box office earnings of movies released in 2023 or later adjusted for inflation, using the release year of each film. We converted these earnings to GBP on 13/11/2024 using Google Finance. We then used this to get the total combined box office earnings of each film our top acting duos had appeared in together. Note: earnings for Hail Caesar (1994), Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018), Not Love, Just Frenzy (1996), and Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health (1996) were unavailable.
We then used IMDb to source the number of awards each film title the pairings shared had won and the total runtime in minutes. We then used this to calculate the total combined awards won and runtime of each film title they shared to reveal the most awarded and lengthiest film partnerships. This data is correct as of 13/11/2024.
Lastly, using Rotten Tomatoes, we sourced the critic and audience scores for each film the acting pairs shared. We then used this to calculate the average critic and audience scores for each pairing to reveal the most critically acclaimed pairing and the pairing with the best fan reception. Note: critic scores were unavailable for Hail Caesar (1994), Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health (1996) and Not Love, Just Frenzy (1996). This data is correct as of 13/11/2024.
We then used Google Sheets' “percentrank" function to give each acting pair a normalised score out of 10 across each of the factors, revealing the pair with the best on-screen chemistry.
