Top-earning actor
Jerry Lewis
≈ $1,430,000
$10M over seven years + 60% of profitsEstimate
About $15.4 million in 2025 dollars
Year three of the Paramount deal; Lewis now also directed his own films.
The Million-Dollar Star · 1960s
1961
Top-earning actress
Sophia Loren
$1,000,000
Fee for El CidDeal
About $10.8 million in 2025 dollars
Loren received $1 million to star opposite Charlton Heston.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1961
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
West Side Story
$19.6 million
- 2
The Guns of Navarone
$13 million
- 3
El Cid
$12 million
★ Starring Sophia Loren