TopBillingHollywood's highest-paid actor and actress, every year since 1916About the data

New Hollywood · 1970s

1972

Steve McQueen

Top-earning actor

Steve McQueen

≈ $1,750,000

10% of the gross, The GetawayEstimate

About $13.5 million in 2025 dollars

No salary, just 10% of the gross from the first dollar: about $1.75 million on $17.5 million of North American rentals. By then McQueen was the world's highest-paid actor.

The pictures that paid

Barbra Streisand

Top-earning actress

Barbra Streisand

≈ $1,000,000

Repeats her 1970 feeEstimate

About $7.7 million in 2025 dollars

What's Up, Doc? was the third-biggest film of the year.

The pictures that paid

Box office champions of 1972

By U.S. theatrical rentals, the studios' share of ticket sales

  1. 1

    The Godfather

    $86.3 million

  2. 2

    The Poseidon Adventure

    $42 million

  3. 3

    What's Up, Doc?

    $28 million

    ★ Starring Barbra Streisand

Sources