Robert Downey Jr says his most important films were ‘Shaggy Dog’ and ‘Dolittle’ - which were highest grossing?

If you're not excited about the new Barbie movie out soon then you may be really excited about the other huge blockbuster due to be released on the same day. 

Oppenheimer is a new movie directed by Christopher Nolan and based on the story of J Robert Oppenheimer who created the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy plays the American physicist known as the ‘father of the Atomic Bomb’. 

The star-studded cast features Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. In the movie Robert, 58, plays Lewis Strauss, the former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and the chief antagonist of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The actor best known for his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man and the Marvel franchise films has been discussing his most important roles whilst on the press tour for the new movie. Surprisingly he seemingly overlooked his role as Iron Man which he played for over 10 years. 

Speaking to The New York Times Robert said “Honestly, the two most important films I’ve done in the last 25 years are ‘The Shaggy Dog’, because that was the film that got Disney saying they would insure me.”

“Then the second most important film was ‘Dolittle’, because Dolittle was a two-and-a-half year wound of squandered opportunity." He explained the stress it put on his wife ‘was shocking.’

Both of the movies were hugely panned by critics and completely bombed at the box office. The Shaggy Dog made just $87 million whilst Dolittle grossed $64 million. They may have been important roles for him personally but they certainly weren’t the most lucrative. 

We take a look at how those movies compare to his most successful Box Office hits. The actor has been in over 80 films and has a staggering estimated net worth of $300 million.

According to IMBD's most ranked movies by box office performance, Robert’s most successful box-office movie was Marvel ‘Avengers Endgame’ (2019) - obviously. He was paid a base salary of $20 million and the film became the highest-grossing in history with $2.8 billion at the box office.

It’s no surprise that his top nine most successful box office movies are all Marvel films. However, away from the role of Tony Stark the actor's highest grossing films may shock you. 

His tenth most successful movie is Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) which was actually the sequel to the first Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie. It grossed $545 million at the box office compared to just $524 million that the first one made. 

The comedy films ‘Due Date’ and ‘Tropic Thunder’, as well as the horror ‘Gothika’ and the true-crime ‘Zodiac’ were all in the top 20 highest grossing films. 

Oppenheimer is out in cinemas from 21 July.