How much is Al Pacino worth?
| Net Worth: | $150 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | April 25, 1940 (age 82) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 6 in (1.7 m) |
About Al Pacino
Al Pacino is an actor who rose to prominence after starring alongside the career-hardened Marlon Brando in The Godfather when he was just a newcomer. He is perhaps best known for starring in crime movies where he is often portraying a criminal or antihero. His career is still going strong after over 50 years, and having recently starred in the newly released Amazon Prime series Hunters, there is not much sign of him slowing down.
When Pacino started performing onstage, he also began winning awards for his acting. While only trinkets to some, they instilled in Pacino a vision for what his future could be. While there were many hard early years in his career, in the 1970s, that all began to change. Pacino’s first leading role was in the 1971 film, The Panic in Needle Park. A year later, he appeared as if by magic to audiences as Michael Corleone in The Godfather.
The Godfather was met with critical acclaim and Pacino became a star almost overnight. Studio execs didn’t originally want Pacino in the main role as they thought he didn’t have what it takes to carry the movie, and that people wouldn’t watch the film based on not knowing who Al Pacino was. Pacino didn’t have a fan base at the time and people barely knew anything about him. However, director Francis Ford Coppola fought for him and the producers ended up eating their words. The Godfather became a major box-office hit and even today, it is widely considered to be the greatest film of all time.
Pacino became known for his distinct variety of acting that few actors have the talent to pull off. He would have outbursts and wild ad-lib moments that most other actors wouldn’t dare to do. This was before Apocalypse Now as well, while Martin Sheen is also known for this it is difficult to know who may have influenced who considering the actors are both of the same age. Pacino was challenging himself in this way for many years even before The Godfather, in Serpico, a movie about a cop that hates cops, and Dog Day Afternoon, which follows a troubled bank robber with a trans-wife, one can see how his approach had already paid off.
In his career, Pacino has won over 50 awards, and though he did not win an Academy Award for his role as Michael Corleone or any of The Godfather movies, some would say, even Al Pacino himself, that he was terribly overlooked by the Academy. He was made whole though when, after having been nominated eight times, he won in the category of “Best Actor in a Leading Role” in 1993 for Scent of a Woman.
For The Godfather, Al Pacino received a salary of $35,000 – adjusted for inflation that is about $250,000 – which is considered low for a leading role, even in 1972. Especially for a film that ran 2 hours and 55 minutes and had such an emphasis on achieving perfection. However many actors will take a pay cut in order to be cast in a film like Godfather, knowing full well that if they ace the part there will be far more money-roles further along down the road.
Two years later, when Pacino reprised his role in The Godfather 2, he was paid $500,000 or around $3 million dollars adjusted for inflation. It has also been said, yet unlikely the case, that he was cut in on 3-5% of the domestic profits, as well. Given that the domestic box office earnings were $57 million and the budget for the film was $13 million. It is certainly plausible that Al Pacino may have earned a little over $2 million dollars from the film, including his $500,000 upfront payment. If this is true his net worth may have been around $450,000, that is, because federal tax rates in the 1970s stipulated 70% tax on earnings over $200,000. Again, his cut of the box office gross is speculation, not fact.
It didn’t take long for Al Pacino to go from being a small time theater actor, to one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. The 1980s was just a warmup round for Pacino as he began to further hone his skills and only take on big movie parts. That decade he still spawned one of the most iconic characters of all time, Tony Montana in Scarface.
The 1990s were even bigger. Pacino kickstarted the decade with a reported $7 million dollar paycheck for The Godfather Part III in 1990. Though the film was widely criticized for being made solely for the purposes of making money, it was a critical success and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.
Some of the movies that followed were GlenGarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, Carlito’s Way, Heat, Donnie Brasco, and The Devil’s Advocate.
Pacino was on fire in the 90s, he appeared in a total of 16 films and earned an estimated $60 million dollars that decade alone. By the year 2000, it is estimated that Pacino’s net worth was around $30 million dollars. In many ways, Al has Ronald Reagan to thank for that. It was Reagan’s tax cuts in 1981 that had a domino effect bringing federal tax rates down to lows of 28% in the late 80s and early 90s.
In the 2000s, his per movie earnings increased dramatically being paid $11 million dollars for his role as Will Dormer, in Insomnia (2002). Then that same year, he was paid another $11 million for his role as Viktor Taransky in S1m0ne. It is estimated that he earned $80 million dollars between the years of 2000 and 2010.
More recently, Pacino played the starring role of Jimmy Hoffa in Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman. Surprisingly, this was the first partnership the duo had ever had. The anticipation couldn’t have been greater, especially with the reported $159 million dollar budget, something that is unheard of for a gangster movie, even for a superhero movie that budget is quite high. Not only was the movie the first time Pacino would work together with Scorsese, it was the fourth time he would appear alongside his longtime peer Robert De Niro.
Pacino’s Total Net Worth
Before the 1990s, Pacino was not one to be typecast, but he eventually took advantage of his aging gangster persona that was first identified in The Godfather Part III, and ran with it. Knowing that it worked well he continued to do it in several well-received movies, most notably in Donnie Brasco, where he acted alongside a young Johnny Depp. Now, in Pacino’s later years, unlike some of his peers who don’t take roles or movie choices as seriously as they once did, Pacino continues to be dedicated to his performances as a complete body of work. He continues to be almost as serious as he was in the 70s, 80s, and even in the 90s.
In total, it is estimated that Al Pacino has earned $230 million dollars in career earnings. Which is substantial considering he hasn’t sacrificed his image, either. He hasn’t appeared in really silly movie roles and he hasn’t taken on endorsements that could have likewise impacted his image. In fact, Vittoria Coffee likely helped build and maintain his look.
All the while he has continued to appear and astound us with his performances. Like the small yet highly memorable part in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood where he played Marvin Schwarz, it was quintessential Al Pacino.
Despite not succumbing to movie offers that may pay well but befuddle his image, he has still been one of the highest earning actors in the business. Even outside of film, in 2012 Pacino received, at the time, one of the highest salaries ever for performing on Broadway. In the play version of GlenGarry Glen Ross he received around $120,000 per week, possibly the highest recorded Broadway salary in history.
In terms of taxes, Al Pacino has paid plenty. His early income between the early 1970s and 1981 will have been taxed at 70% federally for anything over $200,000. He will have also had to pay California state taxes, as well. Fortunately for him after 1981 the tax situation began to ease, he will have paid less tax every year until federal tax rates were just 28% in 1990, but then increased to 39.6% by 1993.
After deducting business costs of about $16-28 million dollars from his $230 million dollars in career earnings. The remainder, $208 million, will have been taxed at around 51%. That is, even considering there were very high taxes in the beginning of Pacino’s career, taxes were also low in some of his highest earning years, including in the 2000s. What is more, he has also lived between Los Angeles and New York so he will have paid more in some years and less in others for his state taxes. After tax, it is estimated that his career earnings are at around $101.92 million dollars, having paid $106.08 million dollars in taxes.
Al Pacino has never been married but he was in a relationship with acting coach Jan Tarrant and they have one child together, Julie. Al was also in a relationship with American actress Beverly D’Angelo, they have two children together, twins Anton James and Olivia.
Al Pacino has had a clear career and personal life since achieving sobriety, in 1977. After The Godfather, Pacino had been having trouble coping with the fame and admitted to abusing drugs and alcohol. He managed to get a handle on it and after he did, his career began to take shape as one of the most iconic of not only his generation, but of all time.
It wasn’t long before his biggest problem was not finding work, or even performing in roles, but what to do with all the cash! Gone were the days when he was being paid peanuts for iconic roles like Tony Montana. In the early 2000s, Pacino was being paid $11 million dollars per lead role and many have wanted to know what he did with all that money.
As it turns out, Al Pacino does not seem to have invested that much of his money into real estate. He is said to have a few properties scattered around New York and Los Angeles. His Beverly Hills mansion however, where he has been living for over a decade is a rental. It has been on the market for $16 million dollars and Pacino has been living for much of his time on the East Coast.
He made a savvy purchase way back in 1979, $375,000 for a compound in the town of Palisades, New York. Today it is estimated to be worth $5-7 million, that is, after having sold a section of it for $3.3 million in 2013. Based on the pattern of Pacino’s behavior, including the 2013 sale of a piece of his own house, it is considered that he is likely keeping huge swaths of cash locked up in equities and other securities.
Even after losing around $7 million dollars in the Starr Investment Advisors LLC scandal, an investment Ponzi scheme that went bankrupt around 2010. The same firm that Uma Thurman lost $2.5 million to. It is still concluded that Pacino has earned around $49-65 million in investment returns. After all, he has been actively investing his money. These estimations may even be a little low.
In his personal life, it is estimated that Pacino may have spent $12-17 million dollars of his career earnings but also probably possesses assets valued at around $4-5 million, not including investment assets. Therefore, it is estimated that Al Pacino has a net worth of around $150 million dollars.
It is worth noting that celebrities like Pacino spend a lot of money, a lot more than many at first might think. He will have spent millions on himself and his family, he has taken extravagant trips, flown private and been photographed with his various partners and children in some of the most exotic and expensive destinations.
He is impeccably dressed, his teeth are great, he is in excellent condition for his age; these things aren’t cheap. Plus, it’s not like the only way he travels is the subway. No, that was only in The Devil’s Advocate. In real life Pacino drives luxury cars, Lexus, Range Rover, Mercedes Benz. Pacino has said that, “It’s never been about money for me. I’ve never been materialistic. It’s just my lifestyle makes me a spender!”
Pacino has also donated some of his money to charity, including to the Red Cross, United Way, Toys for Tots, and Children’s Aid Society. As well as participated in politics and donated money to various Democratic candidates.
Summing-Up
Al Pacino’s net worth is estimated to be $150 million. Not bad for a guy who started out getting into fights in the Bronx. Pacino is 82 years old, but he has proven more than anyone that age means nothing. In 2019 the actor had one of the best years of his career. Not only did he bring back old-school Pacino in The Irishman, but he also starred in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, directed by another industry titan, Quentin Tarantino.
Though things often get stuck in development hell, Pacino is in talks with Scorsese about another collaboration in the future. Though Alfredo was a high school dropout and often rejected from various acting workshops, as Al Pacino, he has arguably had the greatest acting career in cinema history.
