Detailed Methodology

Notes

• Every estimate you see on NetWorth Explained (NWE) is a "at least worth this number," not a "could be worth up to this number" because NWE takes a conservative approach to maximize accuracy. This is reflected in the:
• 6.5% investment ROI, instead of the S&P's average annualized return of 9.4% over the last 50 years
• Film studio box office retention of 40% instead of 50%
• Business manager and agent commission of 15% instead of 10%
• Generous withdrawal amount of $7.4M
• Excluding income from pre-breakthrough roles
• The maximum annual withdrawal and maximum upfront pay is inflation adjusted, which removes the effect of price inflation (for example, the purchasing power of $1M today is almost equal to $440K in 1990)
• Some budget and box office data is unavailable especially when content is produced for a streaming platform like Netflix. Those have been adjusted conservatively to comparable films. Some films record $0 for box office because they were released on streaming platforms or were direct-to-video
• A producer role does not result in extra compensation because the title is often used ceremoniously
• Publicly announced budgets can sometimes be inflated to enhance the movie’s image and meet eligibility for home entertainment deals that require exceeding a certain budget. On the other hand, they may also be understated when cost overruns could lead to bad publicity. These numbers would balance out if the number of movie budgets that were inflated or deflated were similar
• Do you know the production logos you would see at the beginning of a movie or at the end of a TV show? These are the loan out corporations owned by the actors, producers, and writers. It "lends" the talent out to the big movie studios or streaming platforms. The corporation itself pays no taxes as all income is either invested or distributed (tax liabilities are triggered when such investments are sold or when the individual receives the funds)
• Total net worth excludes additional income that could be derived from cameos, advertisements, single episode roles in TV shows, TV movies, short films, and other works unless otherwise noted. Due to the relatively low pay, this will not have a sizable effect on the actor’s net worth
• The estimated annual personal expenditure is $4,060,200. At a 45% tax rate, the annual withdrawal from cumulative becomes $7,382,182.
• All film data from Wikipedia
• Consumer Price Index data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics