Points, Not Paychecks · 1950s
Top-earning actor
$600,000
Half the profits of Winchester '73Deal
About $8 million in 2025 dollars
Instead of a salary, his agent Lew Wasserman got him 50% of the profits: about $600,000. The deal broke the studio system's hold on star pay.
Top-earning actress
≈ $208,000
Repeats her last reported salaryEstimate
About $2.8 million in 2025 dollars
Salary lists stopped being published after the 1940s. Grable was again the top female box-office draw; the figure repeats her 1947 salary.
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
$9 million
$5 million
$4.7 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.
