Top-earning actor
Elvis Presley
$750,000
Tickle Me: $750,000 + 50% of profitsDeal
About $7.7 million in 2025 dollars
$600,000 plus $150,000 in expenses and half the profits for a film that saved the studio from bankruptcy.
The Million-Dollar Star · 1960s
1965
Top-earning actress
Elizabeth Taylor
≈ $1,000,000
About $1 million a filmEstimate
About $10.2 million in 2025 dollars
Taylor and Burton were the most bankable couple in the world, and she was now paid $1 million a picture.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1965
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
The Sound of Music
$72 million
- 2
Doctor Zhivago
$43 million
- 3
Thunderball
$27 million
Neither top earner was in one of the year's three biggest films.