The Jazz Age · 1920s
Top-earning actor
≈ $910,000
$17,500 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $16.6 million in 2025 dollars
Fox's cowboy king. His salary eventually reached $17,500 a week; he reportedly made more than $6 million in films and lost most of it in the 1929 crash.
Top-earning actress
$1,000,000
MGM, six filmsDeal
About $18.2 million in 2025 dollars
MGM offered her $1 million for six films.
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
$2 million
$1.7 million
$1.5 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.
