Top-earning actor
James Stewart
≈ $600,000
Percentage of HarveyEstimate
About $7.4 million in 2025 dollars
Stewart took a share of Harvey too, and it paid about as much as Winchester '73.
Points, Not Paychecks · 1950s
1951
Top-earning actress
Betty Grable
≈ $208,000
Repeats her last reported salaryEstimate
About $2.6 million in 2025 dollars
Still Fox's biggest female star; no salary figure was published.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1951
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Quo Vadis
$11.1 million
- 2
Show Boat
$5.3 million
- 3
David and Bathsheba
$4.7 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.