Top-earning actor
Warner Baxter
$279,807
U.S. Treasury salary listReported
About $6.4 million in 2025 dollars
Second only to Claudette Colbert on the 1938 list; in 1936 he had been the best-paid contract actor.
The Studio Era · 1930s
1938
Top-earning actress
Claudette Colbert
$426,944
U.S. Treasury salary listReported
About $9.8 million in 2025 dollars
Hollywood's top-paid star of 1938. Irene Dunne was second, at about $405,000.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1938
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
$4 million
- 2
Boys Town
$2.8 million
- 3
Alexander's Ragtime Band
$2.6 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.