Top-earning actor
Gary Cooper
$1,400,000
Salary + share of the gross, Vera CruzDeal
About $16.8 million in 2025 dollars
His biggest payday: $1.4 million in salary plus a percentage of the gross.
Points, Not Paychecks · 1950s
1954
Top-earning actress
Jane Russell
≈ $200,000
Repeats her 1953 feeEstimate
About $2.4 million in 2025 dollars
Howard Hughes signed her to a 20-year, $1 million contract, about $50,000 a year. The figure repeats her 1953 fee.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1954
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
White Christmas
$12 million
- 2
The Caine Mutiny
$8.7 million
- 3
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
$8 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.