Colin Jost Reacts to Wife Scarlett Johansson Losing Top-Grossing Title

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Colin Jost does in fact play about Scarlett Johansson.

After Zoe Saldaña surpassed The Avengers star as the highest-grossing actor ever, Colin Jost playfully joked about it with his wife—and himself—during a segment on Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update.

During the January 17th episode of Saturday Night Live, it was announced that Zoe Saldaña, star of the new Avatar film, has earned more at the box office than any other actress, surpassing Scarlett Johansson. The announcement was made while a graph comparing their earnings was shown, and followed with a joke about including the box office numbers from Scarlett Johansson’s husband’s films.

Scarlett initially earned $15.4 billion, but that number fell to $15.1 billion after comedian Colin, age 43, told a joke. He playfully acknowledged the drop in earnings, reacting to the audience’s laughter and asking, “It went down?”

Colin made these statements shortly after news broke that Karla Souza, known for her role in Emilia Pérez, had earned more than Scarlett Johansson as Hollywood’s highest-paid actress. Johansson has two children: 11-year-old Rose with her former husband, Romain Dauriac, and 4-year-old Cosmo with Colin Jost. Souza’s increased earnings are largely due to the massive success of James Cameron’s Avatar trilogy.

As of January 12th, Avatar: Fire and Ash earned an impressive $1.23 billion globally, according to Box Office Mojo. This brings Zoe’s total box office earnings from all her films to $16.8 billion, Screen Rant reports. Her popular movies include Star Trek, Avengers: Endgame, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Scarlett Johansson, age 41, used to be number one with a fortune of $16.4 billion. The rest of the top five highest-earning Marvel actors are Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Pratt.

This isn’t the first time the SNL star has joked about Scarlett Johansson’s co-stars. He previously reacted playfully to a viral video of his wife kissing Jonathan Bailey, her Jurassic World Rebirth co-star.

In a July 2025 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Colin compared a surprising situation to a classic Jurassic Park twist – the danger often comes from an unexpected source. He was jokingly referring to a conflict involving Jonathan, saying he hadn’t anticipated trouble from that person. Colin downplayed the situation, suggesting it was overblown and comparing a friendly gesture, like a greeting kiss, to show it wasn’t a big deal. He expressed optimism that things would be alright.

Honestly, everyone made it seem like there was a feud, but there was absolutely no bad blood between Colin and that amazing Bridgerton star! They weren’t just sitting around fuming, you know? They actually came up with a way to fix things, to make everything feel right. It was so smart of them, really!

Colin joked that Jonathan being openly gay didn’t seem like a major issue. He recalled a moment on the red carpet where they playfully wondered if they were now expected to kiss, as if that would complete some sort of expectation.

For more jokes that Colin has made about Scarlett on the studio 8H stage, read on…

Okay, seriously, Weekend Update just…changed everything. The December 21st, 2024 episode was INSANE! It went way further than they ever have before – totally not safe for work, and I’m still reeling! You HAVE to see the segment, it’s right here and it blew my mind. I can’t stop thinking about it!

On Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, Colin Jost shared a joke written by Michael Che – a bit they don’t see beforehand – about Costco removing its roast beef sandwich. Jost delivered the line, ‘But I ain’t trippin’. I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.’

Scarlett Johansson, who has a 3-year-old son named Cosmo with her husband Colin Jost and a 10-year-old daughter named Rose from a previous relationship, was seen watching Jost perform on TV backstage. She could be seen silently exclaiming, “Oh my God!” as she watched.

The actress’ husband continued, “No, no, I’m just playin’, baby. You know I don’t go downtown.”

Jost and Johansson got even with Che for a prank they played on him during the season 50 finale of SNL in May 2025. You can see the relevant segment from Weekend Update here.

Che admitted to the actress that during a previous ‘joke swap,’ he’d made inappropriate and offensive jokes at Colin’s expense, specifically comparing her body to something from Costco. He explained that he’d said those things because he was feeling insecure and jealous, and confessed he’d never actually seen female genitalia before.

Che then apologized to his fellow cast member, Colin. He explained that he was deeply indebted to him, recalling how Colin had found him at a low point – selling drugs near the Bronx Zoo. He joked that now he was in a similarly questionable situation, but at least it was outside the American Girl store.

Colin shared a joke from Che about finally being able to watch Scarlett Johansson’s smaller, independent films now that the year’s last “Weekend Update” segment was over. You can watch the SNL clip here.

So, back in March of this year, I was writing for Colin Jost on Saturday Night Live, and we had a little fun with a joke referencing Scarlett Johansson’s looks for the final ‘Weekend Update’ of the season. You can check out that segment right here if you missed it!

Colin Jost joked that ChatGPT’s new voice assistant, which is similar to the AI character from the movie Her, isn’t appealing to him. He quipped that without a physical body, he doesn’t see the benefit of listening to it.

Che had Jost reference Johansson after reporting some movie casting news. (Watch the segment here.)

The singer Scott Stapp, best known as the frontman for Creed, is set to portray Frank Sinatra in a new film. Even better, Scarlett Johansson will be taking on the role of Sammy Davis Jr., according to the actress’ husband.

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2026-01-18 20:48