Top-earning actor
Marlon Brando
$1,250,000
Mutiny on the BountyDeal
About $13.3 million in 2025 dollars
$500,000 against 10% of the gross, plus $5,000 a day in overtime, took him past $1.25 million before the film opened.
The Million-Dollar Star · 1960s
1962
Top-earning actress
Elizabeth Taylor
≈ $1,000,000
Cleopatra, still shootingEstimate
About $10.6 million in 2025 dollars
Filming ran on and on in Rome, with overtime on top of her $1 million.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1962
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
The Longest Day
$15.2 million
- 2
Lawrence of Arabia
$15 million
- 3
The Music Man
$8 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.