Top-earning actor
Elvis Presley
$750,000
Spinout: $750,000 + 40% of profitsDeal
About $7.4 million in 2025 dollars
His fees held, even as the films got cheaper.
The Million-Dollar Star · 1960s
1966
Top-earning actress
Elizabeth Taylor
≈ $1,100,000
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? + 10% of grossEstimate
About $10.9 million in 2025 dollars
A reported $1.1 million plus a share of the gross, and her second Oscar.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1966
By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales
- 1
Hawaii
$15.6 million
- 2
The Bible: In the Beginning...
$15 million
- 3
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
$14.5 million
★ Starring Elizabeth Taylor