Top-earning actor
Eddie Cantor
≈ $275,000
$275,000 a pictureEstimate
About $6.5 million in 2025 dollars
Samuel Goldwyn paid Cantor $275,000 a film, and his musicals were among the biggest hits of the early 1930s.
The Studio Era · 1930s
1932
Top-earning actress
Greta Garbo
≈ $468,000
$9,000 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $11 million in 2025 dollars
MGM's biggest star was on $9,000 a week, and her films were the studio's top earners of 1931 and 1932.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1932
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
The Sign of the Cross
$2.7 million
- 2
The Kid from Spain
$2.6 million
★ Starring Eddie Cantor
- 3
Emma
$1.4 million