Top-earning actor
Richard Pryor
$1,000,000
Fee for Stir CrazyDeal
About $3.9 million in 2025 dollars
The first Black actor paid $1 million for a film. The biggest paydays of 1980 weren't reported, so this is the year's best-documented one.
Forbes Starts Counting · 1980s
1980
Top-earning actress
Jane Fonda
≈ $2,000,000
Fee for 9 to 5Estimate
About $7.8 million in 2025 dollars
9 to 5 was the second-biggest hit of the year.
The pictures that paid
Box office champions of 1980
By U.S. and Canadian box-office gross
- 1
The Empire Strikes Back
$209 million
- 2
Nine to Five
$103 million
★ Starring Jane Fonda
- 3
Stir Crazy
$101 million
★ Starring Richard Pryor