Top-earning actor
Elvis Presley
≈ $1,000,000
About $1 million a film + half the profitsEstimate
About $10.5 million in 2025 dollars
Presley was reported as Hollywood's highest-paid actor: up to $1 million a film and 50% of the profits.
The Million-Dollar Star · 1960s
1963
Top-earning actress
Elizabeth Taylor
≈ $7,000,000
Cleopatra, with her share of the grossEstimate
About $73.6 million in 2025 dollars
With overtime and 10% of the gross, her guaranteed $1 million grew to about $7 million.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1963
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Cleopatra
$26 million
★ Starring Elizabeth Taylor
- 2
How the West Was Won
$20.9 million
- 3
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
$20.8 million