Steven Spielberg’s net worth comes from his dozens of movies and many franchises created over the decades. But how rich is he exactly?
From daydreamer to most important director in American cinema history, Steven Spielberg managed to build a massive fortune in the process. Spielberg is one of the most prolific filmmakers of his generation, with 34 feature films directed and 83 produced. His net worth must be massive, but just how much?
He is the second richest celebrity in the world, with a fortune and fate intertwined with his long time friend and colleague George Lucas. The creator of Star Wars, however, has pretty much stopped directing anything beyond his most famous creation. Lucas’ fortune stems solely from Star Wars, its franchise, merchandising and so on.
Spielberg, on the other hand, continues directing movies, having won four Oscars and being nominated even for this year’s edition with The Fabelmans.
Indeed, The Fabelmans is possibly Spielberg’s most personal movie, showcasing his love for filmmaking from a very early age. Sammy, the movie’s protagonist, falls in love with cinema at the age of 6 and makes his first short movie at 11. At 23, Sammy starts his first job at Hollywood, much like Steven Spielberg first did.
Spielberg’s first movie was Duel, a thriller made for the TV. It wouldn’t take long, however, before this young promise found his star.
Jaws and the international success
Just two movies after his first, Steven Spielberg already broke every international box office with Jaws , today considered a classic horror movie. Jaws became the highest grossing movie of all time, with a worldwide box office of $470 million ($1,9 billion when adjusted for inflation).
Spielberg’s record, however, would not last long. While making his next movie (Close encounters of the third kind), he made a bet with his friend George Lucas, who just started making commercial movies himself. Lucas was working on a risky sci-fi project: Star Wars .
Nobody really believed in Star Wars, but Spielberg decided to give Lucas a chance. Spielberg would get a 2.5% share in Star Wars in exchange for a 2.5% share in Close encounters of the third kind which would go to Lucas. Obviously, this bet favored Lucas much much more: he was unknown then, while Spielberg had just made the most successful movie of all time.
However, as we all know, the bet would eventually favor Spielberg. While Close encounters of the third kind grossed a significant $300 million, Star Wars would beat Jaws’ record and gross $797 million.
With his share of Star Wars, as well as creating some extremely successful franchises for himself, Spielberg would eventually become a billionaire.
He is the creator of Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park, as well as the producer of Transformers.
All these franchises made him the world’s second richest celebrity, with a net worth of $8 billion.
Despite this immense fortune, Spielberg simply loves making movies too much to stop. Indeed, he is one of the favorites for the next Academy Award edition, and has no intention to stop creating stories for cinema.
