Top-earning actor
Elvis Presley
≈ $1,000,000
About $1 million a film + half the profitsEstimate
About $10.4 million in 2025 dollars
Three Elvis pictures in one year, all cheap to make and reliably profitable.
The Million-Dollar Star · 1960s
1964
Top-earning actress
Sophia Loren
$1,000,000
Fee for The Fall of the Roman EmpireDeal
About $10.4 million in 2025 dollars
Her second $1 million fee from producer Samuel Bronston.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1964
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Mary Poppins
$31 million
- 2
My Fair Lady
$30 million
- 3
Goldfinger
$22.5 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.