BRIEF

 Pop quiz: Who paid the first $1 million to an actor for one movie? What was the name of the film and what was the year? I'll give you a clue that it was an actress. Another clue: JFK was alive when the film debuted. Also, I've never seen the movie and if you're under 50, then you probably haven't either. The jeopardy theme music...Ready for the answer? The first actor to make $1 million in one film was... Elizabeth Taylor. Liz did this feat in the 1963 film "Cleopatra." FYI, the sum of $1,000,000 in 1963 was equal to $7.7 millions today. When the film first launched, just $1 million was the exact amount of the budget of $2 million. Because Cleopatra's production spiraled into disaster it was "projected". After spending $5 million in the span of six months ($40 million today) The producers realized that they had no useable footage and needed to begin from scratch. The movie eventually cost $31 million to create, which is $237 million after accounting for inflation. Liz's salary grew to $7 million because of budget overruns. It's the same that an actor earns $54 million per movie.