3 4
Age 35

HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON

Age 41

#4

Rank

#1

#1

Peak Rank

#1

18

Years Ranked

17

8

Years in Top 10

7

13.3

Average Rank

14.6

20

Theatrical Releases

23

The Silence of the Lambs $130.7 Million

Biggest Hit

Forrest Gump $329.7 Million

$575.7 Million

Career Domestic
Box Office

$1.6 Billion

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CAREER RANKING HISTORY

Jodie Foster Tom Hanks

Jodie Foster

20 theatrical releases • $575.7 Million Domestic

Year Movie Domestic Box Office Domestic BO
1997 Contact $100.9 Million
1994 Nell $33.7 Million
1994 Maverick $101.6 Million
1993 Sommersby $50.1 Million
1992 Shadows and Fog $2.7 Million

Tom Hanks

23 theatrical releases • $1.6 Billion Domestic

Year Movie Domestic Box Office Domestic BO
1996 That Thing You Do! $25.9 Million
1995 Toy Story $191.8 Million
1995 Apollo 13 $172.1 Million
1994 Forrest Gump $329.7 Million
1993 Sleepless in Seattle $126.7 Million
Career Comparison Summary AI-generated historical comparison. Click to expand.

Note: Films released during the selected year influence the following year's rankings.

Looking at the Hollywood Rankings in 1997, this matchup highlights how differently two careers can score within the same historical snapshot. Commercial scale is another meaningful divider, with the career domestic box office measure giving Tom Hanks the larger theatrical footprint.

The biggest-hit category sharpens the box office contrast, especially because Tom Hanks's leading film creates the stronger single-release benchmark. Overall, the head-to-head score leans leans toward Tom Hanks, but the strongest context comes from the categories where the gap is clearest.