Top-earning actor
Cary Grant
$300,000
$300,000 a pictureDeal
About $4.1 million in 2025 dollars
I Was a Male War Bride was Fox's biggest hit of the year, and Grant was commanding $300,000 a picture.
War and the Big Lists · 1940s
1949
Top-earning actress
Bette Davis
≈ $534,820
$10,285 a week, annualizedEstimate
About $7.2 million in 2025 dollars
A new four-film Warner contract at $10,285 a week made her the highest-paid woman in the United States.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1949
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Jolson Sings Again
$5 million
- 2
Battleground
$4.7 million
- 3
I Was a Male War Bride
$4.1 million
★ Starring Cary Grant