BRIEF

 Pop quiz who was the first actor to be paid $1 million for a single film? Which year was it? Let me provide a clue. It's an actress. Another clue: JFK was alive when the film was released. Additionally, I've never watched the movie and if you're younger than 50, then you probably haven't either. The theme song from Jeopardy is playing now. The very first actor to earn $1 million for one film was... Elizabeth Taylor. The feat was made possible by the 1963 film "Cleopatra". FYI, the sum of $1,000,000 in 1963 was equal to $7.7 millions in today's dollars. The film's budget was originally $2 million also included $1 million. Since Cleopatra's production spiraled into disaster We say "projected". The producers spent $5 million over 6 months ($40,000,000 today) and realized that they had no footage to use. They had to begin again. The film eventually took $31 million for production which is $237 million after adjusting for inflation. With the budget overruns, Liz's paycheck swelled to $7 million. It's the same as an actor earning $54 million per film.