Top-earning actor
Roscoe Arbuckle
≈ $1,000,000
$3 million over three yearsEstimate
About $21.4 million in 2025 dollars
Paramount offered Arbuckle $3 million for three years, up to 18 features, making him the first star guaranteed $1 million a year.
The Silent Stars · 1910s
1918
Top-earning actress
Mary Pickford
≈ $520,000
$10,000 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $11.1 million in 2025 dollars
The last year of her Zukor contract. When it expired in August, Zukor offered her $250,000 to retire from pictures; she signed with First National instead.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1918
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Old Wives for New
$287,000
- 2
The Squaw Man
$284,000
- 3
The Whispering Chorus
$242,000
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.