Best “New” Actor: Butler vs Chalamet vs Elordi vs Holland vs Powell
It’s been a while since I’ve done an actor showdown and I thought today I’d do one focusing on several of the new fresh actors that have taken Hollywood by storm over the last several years. Today we’re looking at SIX actors, Austin Butler, Timothée Chalamet, Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland, and Glen Powell to determine who is the best up and coming actor of Hollywood.
NOTE: I’ve decided to change up the rules here a little bit. Instead of the first place person being the only one to get a point. We’re going to treat this like golf, in each round I’m going to rank them from 1 to 6. Whoever gets first get one point, second gets two points, etc. After the six rounds, whoever has the LOWEST score wins.
ROUND #1: Rotten Tomatoes: For this category I took all of the Rotten Tomato scores for their films, averaged them together. In last place we have Elordi with a 53%, he’s the only actor here to have a rotten average. In fourth place is Butler with 61%, which I’m surprised isn’t higher. That’s lower than I thought he would’ve been. In third place, Powell with 64%. Second goes to Holland with 70%. First is Chalamet with 74%.
ROUND #2: Box Office: For this one I looked at the actor’s box office and ranked them to see who has the highest box office gross so far. In last place is Elordi with $138.8 million. I promise you, I’m not trying to hate on Elordi at all. I think he’s very talented and I’m excited to see what he’ll do. But he’s done a lot of streaming movies which means that his box office isn’t great. The theatrical films that he has done like Saltburn only made about $30 million. As of right now, his highest grossing film is “Wuthering Heights”, which in its opening weekend has made $83 million. Over the course of four days, Wuthering Heights is his highest grossing film. He needs a lot more big box office hits in order to rank higher. In fourth place is Butler with $1.518 billion at the box office. Butler was greatly helped by Dune: Part II which made over $700 million. Films like Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Elvis made between $300-$400 million. He has a bright future ahead of him, I think his box office will do just fine. Third, is Powell with $2.707 billion. This is a solid number for somebody like him. He’s been compared to a modern day Tom Cruise. He’s done big franchise films like Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters which did solid numbers at the box office. He’ll probably clear $3 billion in the next few years. The runner up is Chalamet with $3.237 billion. This isn’t really too surprising to me, he’s done prestige films that have also made a lot of money. Marty Supreme being his most recent film, has become A24’s highest grossing film. I think a lot of that is due to Chalamet self-promoting that film like crazy. But his films from Wonka to Dune: Part II have also done great numbers. By process of elimination, you could’ve guessed that Holland is numbering $11.13 billion. That shouldn’t be too surprising considering Holland is part of the Marvel universe and the other actors are not. Holland is given a huge boost simply because he’s Spider-Man. Between The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day releasing this July, his box office is going to continue to spike and have an even bigger lead.
ROUND #3: Directors Worked With: For this one I looked through their careers to determine who has the best resume of directors. In last place I’m going with Holland who has The Russo Brothers, Jon Watts, Doug Liman, and Ruben Fleischer. Since his career is primarily with the MCU, it means that he’s limited to the amount of great directors he’s worked with. That’s not to say that all of these directors are bad, The Russo Brothers created some of the best comic book movies of all time. But he hasn’t had major success with top directors outside of the MCU. Of course, he’s going to be The Odyssey directed by Christopher Nolan. Maybe in the back half of the 2020s he’ll get roles with some of these top working directors. As of right now, he doesn’t really have that. In fourth place I’m going with Elordi who actually has some solid directors under his belt like Sofia Coppola, Emerald Fennell, Paul Schrader, and Guillermo del Toro. He’s not always picking the best directors currently working but he’s picking interesting directors in a way that Holland hasn’t. Despite only having four big ones, he’s shown that he’s very director driven. Third place goes to Powell with Christopher Nolan, Richard Linklater, Tim Story, Joseph Kosinski, and Edgar Wright. I debated if I should even include Christopher Nolan because he had a small role in The Dark Knight Rises, but he still worked with him so I think it counts. Despite being one of these big names of the decade he hasn’t worked with a lot of high profile top directors. He’s worked with some great ones like Kosinski and Wright, but there’s not a whole lot beyond that. Maybe he’ll do more big blockbusters and find great directors to work with. The second place medal goes to Butler with Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Baz Luhrmann, Denis Villeneuve, Ari. Aster, and Darren Aronofsky. People think about Elvis as Butler’s big breakthrough role which is correct, but he had some solid movies before then. He was in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood directed by Quentin Tarantino. Since Elvis he’s gotten great roles in great movies, most notably Dune: Part II. We’ll talk about this later, but the amount of top directors he’s signed on to work with in the future is pretty crazy. First place goes to Chalamet with Christopher Nolan, Luca Guadagnino, Greta Gerwig, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, Adam McKay, James Mangold, and Josh Safdie. Chalamet had a very impressive career over the years where he’s been able to work with top level directors, I believe his first ever movie was with Christoper Nolan in Interstellar which is pretty incredible for a first film. I have no doubt that he’ll continue to work with top level directors.
ROUND #4: Biggest Future: In last place I’m putting Chalamet. As of right now, the only upcoming film he’s filmed is Dune: Part III which releases this year and it’s rumored he’s in James Mangold’s next film. Dune: Part III will be a massive hit that gets awards love. But that’s not an interesting project for him to do because he’s already done Dune movies, so him doing the third film isn’t interesting to me. I’m putting him in last for that reason. Maybe he’s slowing down his career for a reason because in a short period of time he did Wonka, Dune: Part II, A Complete Unknown, Marty Supreme, and Dune: Part III. In fourth place, I’m going with Elordi. His next film is releasing this August, The Dog Stars directed by Ridley Scott. Right there, he’s one of the leads in a Scott film. He’s also doing a film called Outer Dark with a Hungarian director, who I’ve never heard of. But it’s cool that he’s getting other jobs. One thing that could potentially move him up on the list is seeing if he wins the Oscar. If he wins the Oscar he’s going to get studios throwing scripts at him. In third place is Holland who has two movies coming out this year. In July, we’re getting The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Oppenheimer. Nolan is one of the best directors working today and I think Holland needs this for his career. He’s pushing 30 and he’s primarily known for Spider-Man. If he can show people that he’s a world class actor and more than just Spider-Man then I think he’ll have a bright future ahead of him. Two weeks later we’re getting Spider-Man: Brand New Day, like Timothée, Tom doing a fourth Spider-Man movie isn’t interesting. It’s more interesting to have him do The Odyssey then it is for him to do the next Spider-Man movie. He’s also doing a film called American Speed that doesn’t have a director attached but he’s co-staring with Austin Butler. He’s also been attached to play Fred Astaire in a biopic for several years now but nothing has really come of it. Holland is right there in the middle for having a mix of safe movies like Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and more out of the box movies like The Odyssey. The runner up for round four Powell, who has quite a few projects in development. He actually has a new movie coming out this week, titled How to Make A Killing which is very good and I highly recommend it. He’s also co-writing the latest film from Judd Apatow, with Apatow himself. He’s doing acting but he’s also co-writing and showing that he can do more. He’s also in JJ Abrams’ next film, The Great Beyond that releases in November. I’m very curious about the film, it’s JJ’s first original movie in well over a decade. He’s also doing films with Ron Howard and Barry Jenkins that we don’t know much about. Both of those are Oscar winning directors that have made great films. It’s also rumored that Top Gun 3 is happening and it’s likely that he’ll return if that’s the case. Which means in first place I’m going with Butler, who has projects that I’m very interested in but also working with top level directors. There’s about a million actors being rumored for Michael Mann’s sequel to Heat, and he’s one of them. Is this rumor true? Will it happen? I have no idea. But if that’s the case, he’s in a Michael Mann movie to one of the most celebrated crime thrillers of the last 35 years. He’s also rumored to be Patrick Bateman in a new adaptation of American Psycho directed by Luca Guadagnino. It’s also confirmed that he’s starring in Joseph Kosinski’s remake of Miami Vice with Michael B. Jordan. I haven’t seen any of Miami Vice, but that’s a great director with great actors. Butler gets his first victory in this showdown.
ROUND #5: Most Versatile Actor: For this one I’m looking at the actors’ careers and what they’ve done to show their talents as an actor. In last place, I’m going with Holland, now his ranking could change once we see The Odyssey and see what his role is in that film and what he can do. But as of February 2026, he’s primarily known for Spider-Man. He’s great as Spider-Man, I’m excited that we’re getting another Spider-Man movie with him. But when we’re factoring in his acting chops and his versatility as an actor, I don’t think you can rank Holland super high. In fourth place is Elordi, now I wanted to put him higher up. You watch Frankenstein and you forget that it’s him. In that movie, he’s not doing what he’s normally doing of being this teen heartthrob, he’s playing Frankenstein’s monster. I think Elordi’s ranking is partially on me for not having seen him in enough roles. I know he did The Kissing Booth trilogy for Netflix, which I haven’t seen but I don’t think that’s a great showcase of his versatility as an actor. I haven’t seen Euphoria so I can’t comment on that. What I think Elordi needs is a great role in a David Fincher or Quentin Tarantino movie. I’m very curious to see what his career turns into and what roles he gets now that he has an Oscar nomination. In third place I’m picking Powell, he’s a bit more of a movie star actor then some of the other actors on this list. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t be versatile. He broke onto the scene with Top Gun: Maverick as this hot shot jerk douchebag. He did that in Anyone But You opposite Sydney Sweeney. But you watch Hit Man and he is playing this charming douchebag character. But it’s not at all like what he did with Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You. He does have a specific movie star charm about him, but his roles in movies are very different. I will say, I think he needs more roles that aren’t him as the lead. If Rian Johnson casts him in a side role in Knives Out 4, that’ll be great. Or he gets cast for like a 10 minute scene in a Quentin Tarantino film, that’ll be really cool. I like him as a movie star and his movies but he needs to do something different to rank him higher up on the list. Our runner up is Chalamet, who I think has established himself over the last several years as one of the top actors of his generation. He’s picking great projects while working as top directors as previously discussed. I know I’ve said this a lot in my personal life but I don’t know if I’ve ever said it on my blog, but I’m not a big Timothée fan. I’ve never been on the Timothée hype train the way so many other people are. It’s a bit weird for me to rank him this up on a list like this. But in truth, I think he’s doing a good job of picking different projects and playing wildly different characters. He’s gone from playing Willy Wonka to Paul to Bob Dylan to Marty Mauser, to whoever he’s playing next. He’s played a wide range of characters that don’t at all feel like each other. Despite not being the biggest fan, and really not like his campaign for Marty Supreme, he does have range as an actor. But for me, I’m going with Butler in that #1 spot. Butler has been this emerging talent since Elvis in 2022 and has consistently put out great performances. As soon as I saw him in Elvis, I knew that he was going places and he was going to be around a while. You watch him in Dune: Part II where he’s playing this complete psycho that’s so different from Elvis but he’s equally as good in it. He’s played normal people in films like Caught Stealing from last year with Darren Aronofsky. People forget that he’s in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood which feels so different from anything he’s played as well. The place where I first saw him was that he was in Arrow in season 3. He’s only in three episodes but that’s where I first remember seeing him in something.
FINAL RANKING: Now that all of the rounds are over it’s time to add together all of the points to see based on this system, who is the best “new” actor for this modern generation…
- Timothée Chalamet: 11 points
- Austin Butler: 12 points
- Glen Powell: 14 points
- Tom Holland: 16 points
- Jacob Elordi: 22 points
My Thoughts: I’ll just say, this list seems about right. I don’t have my own personal ranking for these actors. It is kind of funny that Timothée is in first place despite me not being the biggest fan. But if you look at the categories and being honest, he is worthy of those #1 spot. I’m not mad about that placement because I get it.
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