Top-earning actor
Rudolph Valentino
≈ $520,000
$10,000 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $9.5 million in 2025 dollars
His United Artists contract paid $10,000 a week for three pictures a year, plus a share of the profits.
The Jazz Age · 1920s
1925
Top-earning actress
Gloria Swanson
≈ $390,000
$7,500 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $7.2 million in 2025 dollars
Her last full year at Paramount. In 1926 she turned independent through United Artists.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1925
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
The Big Parade
$5 million
- 2
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
$4.4 million
- 3
The Freshman
$2.6 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.