Remember here that $2.5 million dollars used to be the financial freedom barrier - once you had that money, you could live off the proceeds for the rest of your life without working.
Probably a bit higher these days.
If you put the $2.5m principle in a savings account that had, say, a .5% interest rate (which is really crappy - I don't think it'd be hard to find something that had a 3% or higher rate), you'd get $12,500 a year. You'd need food stamps... Put it in an account that gets you 3%, and it'd be $75,000. Not bad, but not exactly living the high life, either...
$10,000,000 is probably closer. A 3% interest on that would yield $300,000, which is a sizable income in most states (excluding some of the higher-end urban areas). Even a .5% interest rate would yield $50,000 a year.