Top-earning actor
Gary Cooper
$600,000
Percentage of High NoonDeal
About $7.3 million in 2025 dollars
Following Stewart's lead, Cooper took a lower salary and a share of the profits, and made $600,000. High Noon won him his second Oscar.
Points, Not Paychecks · 1950s
1952
Top-earning actress
Betty Grable
≈ $208,000
Repeats her last reported salaryEstimate
About $2.5 million in 2025 dollars
No salary figures were published for 1952. Grable remained under contract at Fox; the figure repeats her last reported salary.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1952
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
The Greatest Show on Earth
$12.8 million
- 2
This Is Cinerama
$12.5 million
- 3
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
$6.5 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.