Top Ten Money Making Stars Since 1932

[Brief Encounter]

Thanks Ray. I guess Highly Dangerous being released in December 1950 was a bit too late for that year! But it seems to have made her quite popular again (despite being Highly Awful).



The recent polls don't mean much. But the polls from the Golden Age are probably a very good indicator as to which stars guaranteed ticket sales. It also shows that the stars we now consider to be iconic weren't sure-fire box-office in their day.



Other number one stars nowhere to be found on AFI's listing:

Marie Dressler

Will Rogers

Abbott and Costello

Betty Grable

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis

Rock Hudson

Glenn Ford



Prior to 1960 anyway, since the AFI's rule was that their screen debut should be before 1950, or that they were dead with a complete body of work.

[Ray]

Theo, you mentioning the AFI reminds me again of how little those Top Ten Polls mean. Betty Grable (who I really admired) was in the Top Ten from 1943 till 1951, yet she was nowhere to be found in the AFI's 25 Greatest Actresses. Ironically, Barbara, who never made any list in all those years was Number eleven, and Number eight in the All Time Greatest Villains.

[TimR]

name='Ray']Two perfect examples of why these polls are worthless, except to the money men. Both great stars, and terrific actors with careers lasting more than 50 years.



Another two names to add to the illustrious list of actors ignored by Oscar. Widmark was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the first and last time for Kiss of Death, his first film.



Mitchum was also nominated just once, early in his career, for Best Supporting Actor in The Story of GI Joe. He deserved at least two, for Night of the Hunter and The Sundowners.



For anyone who still thinks that these polls make any difference to a career, just look at some of the names who did make the Top Ten, they flickered briefly and then disappeared. Sandra Dee, Elliot Gould, Ali McGraw, Tatum 'O Neal, and Jill Clayburgh.

Interesting thread.



You make a good point here regarding Widmark and Mitchum. They were both exellent actors, but they also had their detractors. I think that most very gifted people will produce mixed - sometimes ambivalent - responses.



You mention Barbara Stanwyck a few times. That was true of her as well. Most people respected her talent and she was a favorite among women especially, but she had a real edge to her acting and to her personality, and not everyone likes that. The same was true of Orson Welles and Katharine Hepburn. They made successful films but they also made unusual films and some of them failed at the box office when they were released.

[TimR]

name='Brief Encounter']Thanks for the interesting post Ray. You're probably right. The thing to remember is that these lists are the stars which exhibitors felt guaranteed bums on seats in cinemas. Everyone would go to see a Bing Crosby or Doris Day picture no matter what it was. But perhaps with a Barbara Stanwyck or a Bette Davis type star, it was more dependent on each film's merits to get audiences in. Perhaps in their day, they didn't have the dedicated following they later acquired!

Yes - these polls are a measure of what the distributors and exhibitors had to say. How dependable were the actors and actresses on the list?



In the 60s Elvis Presley's musicals would guarantee a profit. When I was a boy, the Burt Reynolds 'chase films' and comedies used to be released in the early summer. They always made money and then disappeared. Clint Eastwood's 'cop movies' and westerns had a guaranteed audience of 12 year old boys like myself and my friends. We went to all of them, without exception. The reviews didn't matter. We wouldn't think of missing them.



So in that sense, Presley and Eastwood and Reynolds were very big stars and dependable money-makers.



The same was true for a few years for Julie Andrews. In her case, it was the large family audience of the late 60s.

[TimR]

name='Ray']Theo, That is a good point that you made about Bing Crosby. His films were what the war weary public wanted in the 1940's. In 1944 he was the worlds Number One Star, probably one of the reasons he won the Best Actor Oscar for Going My Way, which also won best film Supporting actor, Best Film and Director. It was up against Double Indemnity which lost out in all categories. Today Going My Way is all but forgotten, while Double Indemnity is on most lists as one of the greatest film noirs of all time. So as you say, it is all about standing the test of time. The same with Joan Crawford, she may not have many films on the Classics list, but she is still remembered as one of the greatest stars of all time.

Well, Going My Way is not forgotten here. It is a Christmas perennial along with The Bells of St. Mary's.



But I certainly take your point. Double Indemnity was a great success when it was released but it is also a powerful, hard-edged film that did not have the widespread popular appeal of Going My Way. Today it is a classic of its type.



I can remember my parents saying that no one was bigger in the 40s than Hope and Crosby and Grable. Everything they made turned a profit. They were about as dependable as anyone in films. But when Grable made a film with Preston Sturges it was her one flop because no one could see her legs.

[Bernardo]

name='Brief Encounter'].........

Is the answer to all this simply that many of the 'popular' films, and the stars' appeal, have dated badly? Or am I looking too deeply to suggest that the media tend to choose who we like? Audrey Hepburn, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe have been turned into icons due to the memorabilia and endless repeats of their films.



I'm also inclined to believe that certain stars have gathered bigger 'cult followings' over the years, especially Bette and Joan!

On this point I am not a bit surprised. Is it a bit like football? The Clubs took the money and the players were paid moderately, perhaps like MGM and their 'stable' of stars? Now it is the players with the cash and the companies have creditors knocking on their doors likewise in the movie industry.

And just think of all the etceteras there are today, celebs. is an industry on its own.

I think that after Star Wars commercialisation and computer technology occurred, the founding fathers had gone and the industry went through what most other industries have suffered....Change (excuse that recently over employed word).

Nothing more than that; the old actors ACTED more as they only had the set, the industrial brownie box camera, lighting, make-up, script and themselves. Nowadays it is possible to receive acclaim with deft movements in front of a blue screen. I prefer the old'uns for acting and the new'uns for marvelling at the tricks, just look at the length of the credits now.

[Brief Encounter]

name='TimR']

The same was true of Orson Welles and Katharine Hepburn. They made successful films but they also made unusual films and some of them failed at the box office when they were released.

I agree. Case in point Bringing Up Baby. Considered a classic now, but a huge flop when it was released.



However, I notice her regular co-star Spencer Tracy was very popular at the box-office!



Thanks for your input, Tim, nice to have an American perspective here!

[TimR]

name='Brief Encounter']I agree. Case in point Bringing Up Baby. Considered a classic now, but a huge flop when it was released.



However, I notice her regular co-star Spencer Tracy was very popular at the box-office!



Thanks for your input, Tim, nice to have an American perspective here!

Thanks.



Absolutely correct: Bringing Up Baby was a flop. So was Holiday. Today they are classics. For a while the public became tired of Katharine Hepburn. By the time she was older she had become an institution here - probably the most popular American film actress of the century. But when she was younger she put off many people.



Spencer Tracy was the image of the straightforward, truth-telling American man. It was a romantic and idealistic view, certainly, but it was extremely popular. He remained at the top throughout his career - even when he was old he would appear as a sort of sage in Judgment at Nuremburg and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and as the narrator of How the West Was Won.

[Gregwallasey]

Did no one notice betty grable had he most yearsin the box office top ten she had ten consecutive years in the top ten

[christoph404]

Yes, thats all very well, these are all mainly American actors and films, but if you are talking about an actor being a box office draw and his films making large amounts of money worldwide and especially in the USA, I would ask you to cast your mind back to a British film from 1965 with a British actor which made $141,200,000...taking inflation into account that would be $966 435 555 in todays money, so thats nearly one thousand million dollars and it was no flash in the pan either!! The same actor's previous film made approx $100 million, half of which was from US box office. I'll let you work out what it was.

[TimR]

Yes, thats all very well, these are all mainly American actors and films, but if you are talking about an actor being a box office draw and his films making large amounts of money worldwide and especially in the USA, I would ask you to cast your mind back to a British film from 1965 with a British actor which made $141,200,000...taking inflation into account that would be $966 435 555 in todays money, so thats nearly one thousand million dollars and it was no flash in the pan either!! The same actor's previous film made approx $100 million, half of which was from US box office. I'll let you work out what it was.

I would say Sean Connery in Thunderball.

[wadsy]

I would say Sean Connery in Thunderball.

I'd agree with that! Nice to see you back on the forum Tim!

[christoph404]

I would say Sean Connery in Thunderball.

Yep, quite right Tim, "Thunderball" made shed loads as did "Goldfinger" and "YOLT", Thunderball is still the most successful Bond film of all time, taking inflation into account of course.

[batman]

One of the biggest money making stars in Europe during the the late 50s and early 60s was my avatar ... Steve Reeves. Between 1958 and 1964 Steve's films were among the most popular in Europe, mainly in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the UK. They were also popular in the USA. All Steve's films were Italian made action (aka 'Peplum') films and the name Steve Reeves guaranteed bums on seats. At the height of his career he was Europe's highest paid actor at $250,000 per film ... the same fee that Marlon Brando was getting at that time. Reeves career came to an abrupt end when a serious shoulder injury (coupled with the decline of 'Peplum' films and the rise of 'Spaghetti Westerns')) forced his retirement in 1964. In 1968 he made one more film, a 'Spaghetti Western', before returning to the USA. He used his money wisely and became a successful (and very wealthy) horse breeder. He died in 2000 aged 74.

[Gregwallasey]

Yes betty grable the number one female box office star of the 1940's almost forgoten 10 consecutive years in the top ten. Then she gets suspended in 1952 so no film that year then in 1953 how to marry a millionaire that box office was attributed to monroe so bye bye grable.

[Gregwallasey]

Betty Grable was in the top ten box office stars for ten, yes ten consecutive years this is unmatched by no other female star

[ShirlGirl]

Julia Roberts was a top draw for many years.

Jane Fonda, too.