Top-earning actor
Thomas Meighan
≈ $520,000
$10,000 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $9.8 million in 2025 dollars
No salary list survives; the figure repeats Meighan's peak weekly rate.
The Jazz Age · 1920s
1923
Top-earning actress
Norma Talmadge
≈ $520,000
$10,000 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $9.8 million in 2025 dollars
A poll of exhibitors named her the No. 1 box-office star of 1923.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1923
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
The Ten Commandments
$4.2 million
- 2
The Covered Wagon
$3.5 million
- 3
Safety Last!
$1.5 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.