The Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll were polls on determining the bankability of movie stars. They began quite early in the movie history. At first, they were popular polls and contests conducted in film magazines, where the readers would vote for their favorite stars, like the poll published in New York Morning Telegraph on 17 December 1911. Magazines appeared and disappeared often and among the most consistent in those early days were the polls in the Motion Picture Magazine. Though this and numerous other magazines, like Photoplay, continued with this type of poll, the standards for the polling were set by the Quigley Publishing Company. They published a poll, which became known as the "Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll", from a questionnaire sent to movie exhibitors every year between 1915 and 2013 by Quigley Publishing Company. The list was based on a poll of movie theater owners, who were asked to name who they felt were the previous year's top 10 money-making stars. The Top 10 Poll, which appeared annually in Quigley's Motion Picture Herald and The Motion Picture Almanac, was long regarded as one of the most reliable barometers of a movie star's box-office power, as film exhibitors base their decisions on one economic criterion: those stars who will bring patrons into their theaters. For the 1915–1924 period, the list was compiled from 200,000 exhibitor reports, published in the "What the Picture Did for Me" department in 520 weekly editions of the Exhibitors Herald magazine. The first version of the questionnaire, specifically made for the exhibitors to vote for the money-makers, was used from 1925 to 1931. It included voting for both the box office films and the stars. A standardized questionnaire specifically for choosing the biggest box office stars was used after 1933.

Records

Poll results by year

Select top 25 lists

In addition to the top ten stars for that year, the Quigley Poll would commonly list the next 15 stars as well. A sample of these, including some of the predecessors' lists, are below: Additional listings for 1928: 26) Joan Crawford, 27) Buck Jones, 28) Gary Cooper, 29) Janet Gaynor and George Bancroft (tied), 31) John Barrymore and Thomas Meighan (tied), 33) Reginald Denny, 34) Greta Garbo and William Boyd (tied), 36) Norma Talmadge Additional Listings for 1929: 26) Billie Dove, 27) Delores Del Rio and Douglas Fairbanks (tied), 29) Harold Lloyd, 30) Mary Pickford and John Boles (tied) Additional Listings for 1932: 26) Robert Montgomery, 27) James Cagney, 28) Frederic March, 29) Jack Holt, 30) Ruth Chatterton, 31) Buck Jones and Buster Keaton (tied), 33) Johnny Weissmuller, 34) Lew Ayres, 35) Sylvia Sidney, 36) John Barrymore and Polly Moran (tied), 38) Winnie Lightner and Tom Mix (tied), 40) Ralph Graves, Boris Karloff and Ramon Novarro (tied), 43) Joan Blondell, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Ann Harding (tied) Additional listings for 1933: 26) Sally Eilers, 27) George O’Brien, 28) Ann Harding, 29) Marlene Dietrich, 30) Greta Garbo, 31) Richard Barthelmess, 32) John Barrymore, 33) Buck Jones and Paul Muni (tied), 35) James Dunn, 36) Marion Davies, 37) Ruby Keeler, 38) Spencer Tracy, 39) Tom Mix, 40) Clara Bow and Kay Francis (tied), 42) Claudette Colbert, 43) Joan Blondell, 44) Laurel and Hardy, 45) Barbara Stanwyck, 46) Walter Huston, 47) Constance Bennett and Gary Cooper (tied), 49) Irene Dunne, 50) Richard Dix, Jack Holt and George Raft (tied), 53) Charles Farrell, 54) Charles Ruggles and Ruth Chatterton (tied), 55) Ronald Coleman, 56) Sylvia Sidney, 57) Katharine Hepburn, Ken Maynard and Randolph Scott (tied), 60) Jack Oakie, 61) Loretta Young, 62) Ramon Novarro and Dick Powell (tied), 64) Harold Lloyd, 65) Marion Nixon, 66) Leslie Howard and Tom Keene (tied), 86) Kate Smith Additional Listings for 1934: 26) Robert Montgomery and William Powell (tied), 28) Lee Tracy, 29) Greta Garbo and Ann Harding (tied), 31) George O’Brien, 32) W.C. Fields, 33) Joan Blondell, 34) Ginger Rogers, 35) Ken Maynard, 36) Edward G. Robinson and Myrna Loy (tied), 38) Spencer Tracy, 39) Ruby Keeler, 40) The Marx Brothers, James Dunn and Laurel & Hardy, 43) Al Jolson, 44) Richard Dix, 45) Dick Powell & Ruby Keeler (team) and George Raft (tied), 47) Irene Dunne, 48) Zasu Pitts and Gary Cooper (tied), 50) Randolph Scott, 51) Johnny Weissmuller and John Boles (tied), 53) Jackie Cooper and Sylvia Sidney (tied), 55) Jack Holt, 56) Delores Del Rio, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Ruggles and John Barrymore (tied), 60) Charles Farrell, 61) John Wayne and Jack Oakie (tied), 63) Claudette Colbert & Clark Gable (team), 64) Constance Bennett, 65) Slim Summerville, Clara Bow and Richard Barthelmess (tied), 66) Paul Muni, Lilian Harvey and Barbara Stanwyck (tied), 69) Leslie Howard and Tim McCoy (tied) 96) Maurice Chevalier Additional listings for 1935: 26) Pat O’Brien, 27) George O’Brien, 28) Eddie Cantor, 29) Robert Montgomery, 30) Wheeler and Woolsey, 31) Gary Cooper, 32) George Raft, 33) Myrna Loy, 34) Jane Withers, 35) Jeanette MacDonald, 36) George Arliss, 37) Kay Francis, 38) Richard Dix and Hoot Gibson (tied), 40) Joan Blondell, 41) Charles Laughton, 42) Joe Penner, 43) Greta Garbo and Paul Muni (tied), 45) Randolph Scott, Al Jolson, and James Cagney & Pat O’Brien (tied), 48) Lionel Barrymore, 49) Boris Karloff and Loretta Young (tied), 51) John Boles, 52) Tim McCoy and Jackie Cooper (tied), 54) Ken Maynard, 55) John Wayne, 56) Marion Davies, 57) Laurel & Hardy (team) and James Dunn (tied), 59) Warner Oland, 60) Charles Ruggles, 61) Edward G. Robinson, 62) Irene Dunne and Jack Oakie, 64) Jeanette MadDonald & Nelson Eddy (team), 65) Robert Donat, 66) Jean Parker and Guy Kibbee (tied), 68) Margaret Sullavan, Zasu Pitts, and Ronald Colman (tied), 71) Jack Holt, May Robson and Warren William (tied), 74) Sylvia Sidney, 75) Edmund Lowe and Spencer Tracy (tied), 77) Anne Shirley and Bette Davis (tied), 79) Edward Arnold, 80) Nelson Eddy, Miriam Hopkins, Robert Taylor, Freddie Bartholomew and Alice Faye (tied)

Top ten Western stars

For a number of years, there was also a poll for the top ten Western stars in the United States.

Top Ten Money Makers in Britain

The Motion Picture Herald published a similar list for the UK, listing the most popular stars at the British box office, including the most popular British stars.

• Another poll by Sidney L. Bernstein of his theatre group listed these actors.

Top Stars in France

Various polls have been taken for the top stars in France too.

Box Office Poison

In 1938 a list was published of stars who were considered "box office poison" by exhibitors. The list was from Harry Brandt of the Independent Theater Owners Association. The stars included:

Variety's Over Priced Stars of 1968

In 1968 Variety magazine published a list of ten stars it considered overpriced. The stars charged at least $250,000 a film and had at least four flops in a row recently: