So the richest celebrity in the world back in 2010 wouldn't even break the top 20 in 2021.
Here's another mind-blowing anecdote: When we first began tracking Kim Kardashian's net worth back in October 2009, we pegged her personal fortune at $10 million. $10 million. She probably spends that much in a month now. So how rich is Kim today? Has she officially breached billionaire status? How about her soon-to-be ex-husband Kanye West? Certainly a billionaire, but how many billions? And how did Kim's half-sister Kylie Jenner rank this year? When we initially posted our list of the richest people in the world 2020, Kylie was in the top 3. A month later we had to make a MAJOR downward adjustment.
Two quick pieces of housekeeping before we get into our list:
First, if you can't wait a year for this list, you can always check out our real time list of the 50 richest celebrities in the world.
Secondly, a caveat about athletes. This year we decided to NOT include athletes or politicians in our list below. That means you won't see Donald Trump ($2 billion net worth), Magic Johnson ($600 million), Lionel Messi ($600 million), Tiger Woods ($800 million) or Michael Jordan ($2.2 billion). You also won't see LeBron James, but his $500 million wouldn't have been enough to make the cut this year anyway.
We'll publish a dedicated list of the richest athletes very soon.
So let's get to it!
The self-proclaimed "King of all Media", Howard Stern earned hundreds of millions of dollars from his nationally syndicated radio show which ran from 1986 to 2005. He then jumped to Sirius Satellite Radio with the first of several $500 million contracts. He has earned well-over $1 billion from Sirius alone. In December 2020, Howard confirmed that he had signed a new 5-year $600 million deal. After production costs, Howard's annual cut is around $90 million (before taxes and fees). At his current schedule of three new shows per week, 40 weeks per year, Howard earns $333,333 per show post-tax. Howard is one of many celebrities on this list who own over $100 million worth of personal real estate. Howard's real estate portfolio includes a $50 million NYC penthouse, a $30-40 million Hamptons mansion and a Palm Beach mansion that he bought for $52 million in 2013.
Singer. Songwriter. Actress. Entrepreneur. Theme park tycoon. Philanthropist (whose foundation directly contributed to the creation of the COVID-19 vaccine). Does anyone else on the planet beat Dolly Parton's resumé? Not only has Dolly sold over 100 million albums of her own music, songs she has penned have sold hundreds of millions of copies after being covered by other artists. The most famous example being "I Will Always Love You", which as you know, was covered by Whitney Houston and featured prominently in the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard". Whitney's version is one of the best-selling singles in music history and has earned Dolly at least $20 million in royalties over the last three decades. Dolly's song catalog/royalty rights alone are worth a minimum $300 million based on recent comparable catalog sales (Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks). Her theme park Dollywood is one of the 25 most-visited theme parks in the US with more than 3 million annual visitors.
When we posted our list of the 30 richest celebrities in the world in March 2020, Kylie initally ranked near the top with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Two months later, Forbes posted an article titled "Inside Kylie Jenner's Web of Lies – And Why She's No Longer A Billionaire", in which the author claimed to have been duped by Kylie and Kris Jenner for years. Forbes claimed that literally all the numbers Kylie and Kris had provided over the previous years were inflated or flat-out false. They also alleged that the duo used "forged tax documents" to prove inflated earnings and net worth. Not to toot our own horn, but CelebrityNetWorth had spent about two years publicly disputing exaggerated reports of Kylie's wealth. We ultimately acquiesced when Forbes put their stamp on a net worth of $1.2 billion.
Today we peg Kylie Jenner's net worth at an extremely-respectable $700 million. She drops from the top 10 to #19 on this year's list.
Terminator. Titanic. Avatar. Aliens. True Lies… James Cameron is a box-office powerhouse. As of this writing, his movies have grossed around $6.3 billion worldwide. James has generated several massive windfalls during his career that have jolted his wealth into the stratosphere. For example, when "Titanic" went over-budget during production in 1996, James famously gave up his entire $8 million salary in exchange for back-end points. When the movie generated $2.2 billion, James found himself sitting on a $650 million payday. Thanks to a similar profit-sharing deal, James earned around $350 million from the first "Avatar", with a whole slate of Avatar movies on the way. So between just those two movies alone, James has earned over $1 billion pre-tax. His net worth would be much higher had James not been married FIVE times. He paid ex-wife and "Terminator" star Linda Hamilton a $50 million settlement after being married for just 18 months.
Best known for being the lead singer of U2, Bono has actually made the majority of his net worth outside of music. He oversees a vast real estate portfolio, with investments primarily in his native Dublin. For example, in 1992 Bono and bandmate The Edge acquired the Clarence Hotel in Dublin. They proceeded to convert it into a five-star, luxury hotel. Bono and The Edge co-own hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate in Ireland. Bono is also a founder of the investment firm Elevation Partners. Elevation invested around $200 million into pre-IPO Facebook. The stake was worth $1.5 billion when Elevation decided to cash out. Oh, and let's not discount his success with U2! In addition to selling an estimated 170 million albums worldwide, U2 is consistently one of the highest-grossing bands in the world– when they tour.
Dr. Dre slips a few spots compared to last year when his net worth peaked at $820 million. And this time next year Dre may not even rank in the top 50 of richest celebrities. Why? Unfortunately, Dre is likely about to pay his soon-to-be ex-wife Nicole, a MASSIVE divorce settlement. Nicole filed for divorce in June 2020 after 24 years of marriage. There is reportedly no pre-nup. Their divorce has been anything but friendly. The divorce stress may have been partially responsible for landing Dr. Dre in front of some actual doctors back in January after he suffered a brain aneurysm. As you know, the majority of Dre's wealth comes from the company Beats by Dre. When Dr. Dre and his co-founder Jimmy Iovine sold Beats to Apple in 2014 for $3 billion, they each owned 25% of the company. They each earned $750 million pre-tax from the sale. They both received roughly 1 million Apple shares as part of the sale. Apple's shares split 4-1 in 2020. If Dre still owns all 4 million Apple shares, they're worth $508 million at today's closing price.
Tyler Perry is another celebrity where CelebrityNetWorth differs from the reporting of Forbes. Forbes has reported that Tyler Perry is a billionaire. Based on the tracking we've done for over a decade, Tyler's net worth has not quite cracked billionaire status. Tyler grosses $200-250 million per year, with $150 million coming each year from a single deal with ViacomCBS. As of this writing he has produced over a dozen "Madea" movies, generating just under $700 million at the global box office. Each movie costs less than $10 million to produce. Tyler writes, directs and produces his movies entirely on his own, entitling himself to around $300 million in profits generated by this one franchise.
When Tyler's TV production talents were lured from the CW to TBS, he was given a $200 million guarantee and 100% ownership of his shows. Tyler proceeded to spend around $60 million to produce content, pocketing the remaining $140 million. Tyler Perry Studios is a production company located on 330 acres in Atlanta that was formerly a military base called Fort McPherson. Tyler spent $250 million building out the studio, which would eventually serve as the home of movies like "Black Panther" and TV shows like "The Walking Dead". In a given year, Amazon alone spends $100 million RENTING the studio's facilities for its own productions. Some other quick hits: Tyler owns around $50 million worth of personal real estate. His private jet cost $125 million after all customizations. Tyler generously allowed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to live at his $20 million Beverly Hills mansion — rent-free — after they fled the UK.
The Canadian singer/songwriter has sold more than 220 million albums worldwide and is still an extremely hot live concert ticket. Her most recent Courage World Tour sold out all 52 North American stops. The European leg had just commenced, and was fully sold out, before being cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a touring year, Celine earns around $50 million in concert revenue. To American pop audiences, Celine is probably still best-known for her 1997 single, "My Heart Will Go On". The song went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song after being included in James Cameron's "Titanic". Between 2000 and 2010 Celine Dion was the highest grossing entertainer in the world. When you add up ticket sales, record sales, merchandise and every other source of income, Celine's empire grossed over $720 million in that period! Of that amount, $500 million came from worldwide ticket sales. Of that $500 million, $350 million came from her Las Vegas show alone.
It goes without saying that Madonna is one of the most successful musical artists of the last 30 years. Like the aforementioned Dolly Parton, Madonna is a powerhouse in several non-entertainment ventures. Madonna's art collection is worth a minimum of $100 million. Maybe $300 million+ in the right art market. She owns pieces by artists including Picasso, Damien Hirst, Diego Rivera and Marilyn Minter. Madonna owns around $100 million worth of global real estate– that we know about. At one point she owned six properties in London alone. In 2009 she paid $32 million for a 12,000 square-foot townhouse in New York City. She owns a 50-acre equestrian estate in the Hamptons. As of this writing, she has produced four fashion brand collaborations. Through her holding company, MG Icon LLC, Madonna has launched a line of skincare, perfume and accessories.
Diddy is the only celebrity in the world who has ranked in the top 20 of highest-earning celebrities every year straight since we first launched the list in 2009. In the 20 years between 2000 and 2020, Diddy grossed over $1 billion thanks to a sprawling business empire. Today his major investments include stakes in Revolt TV, DeLeon tequila, Aquahydrate and Ciroq vodka. Diddy also owns the master records of some massive artists, notably "The Notorious B.I.G.".
Why is Jerry Seinfeld so so so rich? Jerry Seinfeld is touching on billionaire status because both he and Larry David own 7.5% of "Seinfeld's" back-end equity points. As of this writing, "Seinfeld" has generated several billion in syndication revenue. The streaming revolution continues to shower Jerry and Larry with enormous cash windfalls. The most recent example happened in November 2019 when Netflix paid $500 million to be the exclusive streaming home of the series for five years starting in 2022. When that deal is up, Jerry and Larry will find a new one. And all along they are continuing to sell the show worldwide into syndication with deals that continually come up for renewal. "Seinfeld" has proven to be one of a tiny handful of shows whose per-episode syndication fee keeps INCREASING over time. And that's just one leg of his Jerry's empire. He earns millions each year from comedy ticket sales, and in 2020 Netflix paid him $20 million for exclusive rights to his special, "23 Hours to Kill".
The first of 10 celebrity billionaires, J.K. Rowling is obviously most famous for creating the "Harry Potter" empire which has sold more than 500 million books worldwide and generated billions at the global box office. Rowling is one of the wealthiest private citizens in the United Kingdom and the first author in the world to achieve a net worth of $1 billion. It should be noted that J.K. is extremely private about her personal finances and has denied being a billionaire. That might be possible if she has secretly donated a large portion of her wealth to charities. For the record, it is known that she has donated at least $150 million to charity to date. She wrote the first book as an unemployed single mother living on welfare.
David is BY FAR the richest magician on the planet. He earns $40 – $60 million per year thanks largely to the 500+ shows he performs each year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After Las Vegas shut down due to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, David did not lay off any staff and continued to personally pay every salary. David owns the world's largest collection of magic memorabilia. The collection contains more than 150,000 items, with especially valuable relics from Harry Houdini, Georges Melies, and the father of modern magic, Robert Houdin. The collection is housed in a 40,000 square foot warehouse located several miles off the Las Vegas Strip. Some experts have valued the collection at a mind-boggling $500 million. David's real estate portfolio is worth $200-300 million. The crown jewel of his portfolio is an 11-island resort in the Bahamas that costs $50-100,00 per night to rent with a four-night minimum. He bought his first Bahamanian island in 2006 for $55 million. In Vegas he owns an $18 million mansion. In New York City he owns a four-floor apartment that is worth at least $60 million.
It goes without saying that Sir Paul McCartney is one of the most-successful and significant musicians in history. The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time. As of this writing they have sold 600 MILLION records worldwide. Paul is no slouch as a solo artist and still regularly performs sold-out tours around the world. In a given year he earns $50-70 million from his empire with a large portion of those earnings coming from royalties generated by his own songs and copyrights to thousands of other songs by artists.
As most people know, Paul and John Lennon sold the publishing rights to most of their songs decades ago in what has been proven to be a terrible mistake. Michael Jackson bought the catalog in 1985 for $47.5 million. A decade later Jackson merged all songs (minus his own) with Sony Music to form a new company called Sony/ATV Music Publishing. In 2016 Sony paid $750 million to acquire Jackson's 50% stake to become sole owners. Soon after the transaction, McCartney sued Sony for to reclaim any songs written prior to 1978 (which would be the majority). He cited a US copyright law that allows an author to reclaim the US rights to their work after 56 years. Sony and Paul eventually reached a confidential (and likely VERY expensive) settlement.
McCartney (and Lennon's heirs) do not own publishing rights to the majority of Beatles songs, but that doesn't mean they don't get paid from their usage. They both get songwriters royalties which in the United States average 33.33% of all revenue generated. Outside the US they earn a shared 50%. McCartney owns just TWO Beatles songs outright; "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You". Those two songs were written under a very early publishing deal and were therefore not included in the Michael Jackson sale.
Jumping a couple positions and $100 million compared to 2020, Jay-Z clocks in at the seventh-richest celebrity in the world with a net worth of $1.3 billion. Like many of the celebrities on this list, Jay earned the vast majority of his personal fortune outside of his primary entertainment talent (in his case, rapping). Jay oversees an extremely impressive business empire. An empire that's made some very interesting movies 2021.
In February 2021 he sold 50% of his champagne brand Armand de Brignac to luxury conglomerate LVMH at a $640 million valuation. A week later he struck a deal to sell streaming service Tidal to Jack Dorsey's OTHER company, Square, for $300 million. Jay also owns equity stakes in SpaceX, Outly, Uber, Sweetgreen and Ethos.
When combined with wife Beyonce's $500 million fortune, the couple's net worth is within striking distance of $2 billion.
Beyonce and Jay-Z own $100 million worth of art and $150 million in global real estate. The crown jewel of their property portfolio is a 30,000 square-foot mansion in Bel Air, which was picked up for $88 million in 2017. They put $36 million down and took out a $52 million mortgage.
Jay-Z's net worth is $1.3 billion.
Once again, we differ slightly from Forbes which very recently estimated the soon-to-be-former Mrs. Kanye West as being worth a flat $1 billion. We estimate the actual amount to be a bit higher.
Despite our differences, there's one thing we can agree on: Kim Kardashian is unfathomably successful considering her career started with a stint as Paris Hilton's personal assistant and a sex tape with Ray J. She parlayed that early infamy into a reality show that ends a 20-season run this year after debuting in 2007. Kim then parlayed reality fame into a social media and product empire.
Today, Kim's two most-valuable assets are KKW Beauty – a direct-to-consumer beauty product line, and Skims – a shapewear company. KKW Beauty generates north of $100 million per year in revenue. Last year she sold a 20% stake in KKW to Coty, the same company that bought 51% of half-sister Kylie Jenner's Kylie Cosmetics company in 2020. KKW Beauty was most-recently valued at $700 million. Kim owns 72% of the company, giving her a pre-tax $500 million stake.
Skims was launched in 2019. An April 2021 New York Times article reported that Skims had recently raised $154 million at a $1.6 billion valuation. Kim is believed to own 50-60% of the brand, giving her a pre-tax stake worth $800 – $960 million.
Children of the 1980s know Jami Gertz thanks to roles in movies like "The Lost Boys" and "Less Than Zero", and the television show "Square Pegs". More recently Jami has had co-starring roles in sitcoms like "Still Standing" and "The Neighbors". So how is Jamie Gertz a multi-billionaire? The literal fifth-richest celebrity on the planet? She married very very well.
In 1989 Jami married an upstart financier named Antony Ressler. After graduating from Georgetown University, Tony went to work at Michael Milken's now-infamous investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. Drexel pioneered the art of raising gobs of money for corporate raiders who would go out and buy companies with nothing down and lots of debt. After Drexel's implosion (Milken ended up serving 22 months in prison), in 1990 Tony co-founded Apollo Global Management. He and Jami married the year before. In 1997 Tony co-founded Ares Management. Today the company manages more than $130 billion in assets. In 2015 Jami and Tony bought a majority stake in the NBA's Atlanta Hawks for an estimated $800 million. Today the Hawks are worth $1.5 billion. They originally wanted to buy the Dodgers, but were outbid. They own a minority stake in the Milwaukee Brewers and around $100 million worth of known real estate, including a property in the ultra-exclusive gated community of Beverly Park, that is worth at least $50 million. Their home in Malibu sits above Broad Beach, which is considered one of the most-desirable places to live in the 'Bu.
The entertainment world was stunned in 1984 when a little-known black news anchor –with an unusual first name– was given a 4-year, $1 million contract to host her own morning talk show in Chicago. Within a few months of debuting, the show rocketed from dead last to #1 in the Chicago market. Within two years the show was nationally syndicated. But Oprah was unhappy. She quickly realized her 4-year, $1 million contract was peanuts compared to the profits that were being generated from her work. Oprah consulted with Chicago media legend Roger Ebert. Roger told her to meet with his agent, Jeffrey Jacobs. Jacobs explained that Siskel and Ebert owned a piece of their show's back-end equity; That's how you get rich. You need to be an owner. Oprah took Jeffrey's advice to the extreme. Actually, she also took Jeffrey.
Oprah and Jeffrey co-founded HARPO Productions (she owns 90%, he owns 10%) and proceeded to produce "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on their own dime. They then sold the show market by market. Next, Oprah and Jeffrey negotiated a much larger overall deal with ABC that included movie productions, a magazine, books, and, most importantly, the right to launch other TV shows under her production umbrella. All production for these shows would take place at her 3.5-acre HARPO campus. They weren't done.
Oprah and Jeffrey went so far as to negotiate an ownership stake in her distributor, King World Productions. Thanks to this deal, Oprah would earn money off every show King World produced, including Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
In 1999, CBS bought King World for $2.5 billion in stock. When the acquisition was over, Oprah owned 1% of all of CBS. She also ended up owning a significant chunk of Disney stock through a deal she made with ABC in the mid-1990s.
At her peak when "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was airing, Oprah personally earned around $300 million per year from her media empire.
Oprah has been a board member of Weight Watchers since 2015. When she was joined the company, she was awarded $43.5 million worth of equity. That stake has grown to be worth more than $400 million at various points in recent history.
Oprah Winfrey's net worth is $3.5 billion. She is one of the richest self-made women in human history and certainly the richest self-made black woman in American history.
As of this writing, Oprah has given more than $400 million to charity, mostly focusing on educational causes. She has paid for more than 400 scholarships to Atlanta's Morehouse College.
Forbes says $1.6 billion. We say $6.6 billion. Why the difference? I frankly don't know why Forbes is so quick to bestow billionaire status on some celebrities (Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Tyler Perry) based on extremely loose unconfirmed data, but won't throw Kanye a bone. Here's what we know, and this info has been confirmed by TWO banks:
When people have asked me why Kanye is worth $6.6 billion as opposed to $1.6 billion, I use the following analogy:
Nike's Jordan brand generates $3-4 billion per year in sales, earning Michael Jordan $100-120 million per year in royalties. Nike owns the Jordan brand. If Nike were to sell Jordan, at a 10x valuation it would fetch $30-40 billion. That money would go to Nike. Kanye has almost exactly the same royalty deal with Yeezy. The major difference is that Kanye OWNS the brand. So if a sale were to ever happen, Kanye would be the sole beneficiary.
Kanye West's net worth is $6.6 billion. That makes him the richest black person in America, topping former #1 Vista Equity Partners founder Robert F. Smith.
What's the difference between James Cameron being worth $700 million and Steven Spielberg being worth $7.5 billion? Well, for one, Cameron-produced movies have generated $6.3 billion at the worldwide box office whereas Spielberg-produced movies have generated more than $14 billion. And just like James, Steven has traded salary for points on a number of his box office smashes. For example, Spielberg earned $250 million off 1993's "Jurassic Park", followed by $150 million from the sequel, and $75 million from the third installment for a total of $475 million from this one franchise.
But the real difference between being worth $700 million and $7.5 billion can be traced to an extremely lucrative deal with Universal theme parks. In the 1990s, Steven agreed to a deal that gave Universal (the studio behind "Jurassic Park") the first right to make theme park rides based on his movies. In exchange, Steven would be entitled to 2% of all GROSS ticket sales at Universal theme parks around the world, annually and in perpetuity. Universal eventually opened multiple theme parks around the world. Each park owed 2% of its gross ticket sales to Mr. Spielberg.
By 2015 Universal was owned by publicly traded Comcast. A Comcast securities filing revealed that it had an upcoming $535 payment due to Steven as a result of a buyout clause. Instead of making that payment, Universal doubled the amount and took a small stake in Spielberg's film studio Amblin Partners.
Oh. And for decades Steven owned a not-insignificant equity stake in "Star Wars" thanks to a brilliant deal he struck with his good buddy George Lucas back in the early 1970s.
Steven owns $200 million worth of real estate and a $250 million yacht.
George Lucas is the richest celebrity in the world with a net worth of $10 billion. George could buy the top 9 celebrities on this list outright and still have $400 million leftover. George Lucas is unimaginably rich thanks almost entirely to "Star Wars".
As you may have noticed as you read this article, in order to become an unimaginably rich celebrity it helps to own something that ends up being extremely valuable to someone else. In other words, you can't just be a highly-paid salary earner.
George Lucas owning 100% of "Star Wars" can be traced to what is by far the most-brilliant business decision in Hollywood history. The long story short is that back in 1973 George agreed to accept a lower salary on the first "Star Wars" (which the studio was convinced would tank) in exchange for two requests:
#1) He would own all the merchandising rights.
#2) He would own the full IP (intellectual property) of the franchise after the first film.
Between sequels, DVDs and merchandise, "Star Wars" would eventually generated more than $12 billion globally. All profits went to George.
It gets better.
In 2012 George sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney for $4 billion in cash and stock. Specifically he received 37 million shares of Disney and $2.15 billion in cash. On the day the transaction closed, the 37 million shares were worth $1.85 billion. Disney stock has roughly quadrupled since 2012. George never sold a single share. Today those 37 million shares are worth $7 billion. Just a few weeks ago when Disney hit an all-time high, they were worth $7.5 billion (aka one Steven Spielberg).
George earns around $64 million per year thanks to Disney's semi-annual $0.88 dividend.
George is another celebrity who owns an enormously valuable real estate portfolio. He owns a 3-acre beachfront estate in Carpinteria, California (spanning two lots) that's almost priceless, but would be worth a minimum $80 million if it hit the market. He owns a $34 million mansion in Bel Air. Up in the Bay Area, he has owned Skywalker Ranch since 1978. He spent $100 million turning part of the property into a movie studio, production facility and employee retreat. The property was originally 5,000 acres but he has since donated around 90% of the land to a local conservation trust.
George is a signatory of the "Giving Pledge", and has indicated he will donate the majority of his wealth to charity by the time he dies or at his death.
With a net worth of $10 billion George Lucas is the richest celebrity in the world 2021. His good friend Steven Spielberg is #2 with a net worth of $7.5 billion. Kanye West's $6.6 billion fortune allowed him to jump to #3, knocking Oprah down a notch to #4.
Here's a quick list of the 10 richest celebrities in the world 2021:
#10: Jerry Seinfeld Net Worth: $950 million
#9: J.K. Rowling Net Worth: $1 billion
#8: David Copperfield Net Worth: $1 billion
#7: Paul McCartney Net Worth: $1.2 billion
#6: Jay-Z Net Worth: $1.3 billion
#5: Jami Gertz Net Worth: $3 billion
#4: Oprah Winfrey Net Worth: $3.5 billion
#3: Kanye West Net Worth: $6.6 billion
#2: Steven Spielberg Net Worth: $7.5 billion
#1: George Lucas Net Worth: $10 billion
