Ben Stiller Net Worth

How much is Ben Stiller worth?

About Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller’s parents were famous, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were legendary comedians in New York City and Ben grew up around fame. “In some ways, it was a show-business upbringing—a lot of traveling, a lot of late nights—not what you’d call traditional,” Stiller has said. He made his acting debut at 9 years old, appearing in his mother’s short-lived television series Kate McShane.

His mother and father were Jewish, his father was of Austrian and Polish Jewish descent, and his mother, was of Irish Catholic descent who converted to Judaism. “We were never a very religious family”, Stiller has said. He notes that they celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, but that he also had a Bar Mitzvah. As he grew up, Ben found himself wondering why his parents were so popular and he himself began to take after them. Ben performed Shakespeare around the house while wearing his sister, Amy Stiller’s, tights. He also realized his interests as a director and a writer, making films on his Super 8 camera.

During his high school years, Ben was the drummer of the post-punk band Capital Punishment. They released the studio album Roadkill in 1982, then in 2018, some 36 years later, the band reunited and released a new EP, This is Capital Punishment.

After graduating from the Calhoun School in 1983, Ben enrolled in UCLA to study film, but he left after nine months and headed back to New York determined to break into acting. Before he managed to find his way into Hollywood, Ben appeared for years in the theater. After dropping out of UCLA, he performed in the Tony Award winner, The House of Blue Leaves. Actually Ben started on the cabaret circuit as an opening act to the cabaret siren Jadin Wong.

Ben originally found some success while interning at the prestigious Actors Studio, making his official film debut in 1987’s Empire of the Sun. He also directed “The Hustler of Money,” a comedy short which aired on Saturday Night Live that led to his big break. His infamous Tom Cruise impression in the Color of Money spoof, had him hired as a featured star and writer on SNL. While his stint on the show only lasted a year, it opened the door to his own show, The Ben Stiller Show, on MTV, which later moved to FOX two years later. Despite winning a writing Emmy in 1993, the sketch comedy show was soon cancelled due to low ratings.

Undeterred, Ben released his feature length directorial debut Reality Bites in 1994. The film starred himself alongside Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke and was met with positive reviews, as well as earned four times its budget at the box office. This encouraged him to direct 1996’s The Cable Guy starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick which earned $102.8 million from a $47 million dollar budget. It also paved his way to becoming a member of well connected comedy film groups, including later on the “The Frat Pack”. Actors and filmmakers often group together to bring production costs down and with the shared goal of increasing profitability, and also their slice of the gross.

By 1998, Ben’s career really began to kickoff. He appeared in the hysterical Farrelly brothers’ comedy There’s Something about Mary as a dorky sweetheart in love with Cameron Diaz. Even almost a decade after the movie was released, people would still approached him to ask about “the wellbeing of his crotch”. The second hit movie was Your Friends and Neighbors where Ben’s role of Jerry, the flirty theater instructor, was well received. Finally that year, he appeared in Permanent Midnight as Jerry Stahl. Ben was praised for his role as a heroin-addicted writer, demonstrating that while he was in the business of comedy, he could also enrapture audiences as well.

Many more big blockbuster films followed. In the year 2000, Ben appeared as Greg Focker, a role that he would reprise in three films in a franchise that would eventually earn over $1.15 billion dollars. It had him working with his from-then-on friend, Robert De Niro. The pair were a match, and the Meet The Parents films became one of the most popular comedy franchises of all time. Then there was Zoolander. The film was not nearly as popular, and the sequel released 15 years later would barely covered its budget, but it had Stiller and Owen Wilson working together again, a pair that audiences definitely liked.

In 2004, Stiller was flaming hot with audiences and it was also one of his most profitable years yet. However, despite appearing in six films that year, many which continue to have cult followings today, Stiller holds a distinct Razzie Award record for 2004. He was nominated for “most titles in one year for Worst Actor” in five of the six films in which he appeared in, Along Came Polly, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Envy, and Starsky & Hutch. In fact, the only film he was not nominated for that year was Meet the Fockers, who knows, perhaps the Foundation felt like Robert De Niro couldn’t handle it.

It seems like, it was all in good fun though and Stiller’s career never looked better. In 2006, Ben appeared in the first of what would become another major franchise film, Night at the Museum which earned $574.5 million at the box office. In 2007, Forbes magazine estimated Ben’s earnings for the year at $38 million, and in 2008, he directed the Oscar-nominated performance of Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder. In 2009, he reprised his role as Larry Daley in Night at the Museum 2 which earned another $413.1 million for the franchise. 2010 marked another record year for Ben, earning a reported $20 million for reprising his role as Greg in Little Fockers.

While Ben’s film acting career has slowed down in the last decade, Ben notably produced, directed, and starred in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. A film that took audiences around the world, and while somewhat of a risky narrative for its budget, $90 million dollars in production costs, it doubled the amount, earning $188.3 million at the global box office. He also reprised his role as Larry Daley for Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, which added an additional $363.2 million to the franchise’s box office gross.

Stiller’s Total Net Worth

Ben Stiller’s career hit an upward trajectory in 1998, when he was paid $3 million dollars for his role as Ted in There’s Something About Mary. Soon after, he was being paid tidy sums for essentially anything that he would agree to appear in. By 2004, Stiller’s career had never been better appearing in six films and earning an estimated $35 million. In 2007, Forbes magazine estimated his earnings for that year at $38 million and, in 2010, for reprising his role as Greg in Little Fockers, he was paid a reported $20 million. In total, Ben Stiller has earned estimated total career income of around $335 million dollars.

Of that amount, around $23-40 million is expected to have been paid in business related costs. The remainder, $303.5 million, will have been taxed at a rate of around 48% as Stiller has been residing between the states of New York and California and earned large sums in the 2000s when tax rates were lower. After tax, it is estimated that his career earnings are at around $157.82 million dollars, having paid $145.68 million dollars in taxes.

While appearing in four or five movies per year, a handful of episodes on various TV sitcoms, and making appearances as himself, Ben has also had a successful romantic life as well. After a six year relationship with Jeanne Tripplehorn that ended in 1996, Ben began dating sexy stars like Amanda Peet and Claire Forlani. Then, in 1999, he became a one-woman man, when he met Christine Taylor on the set of Heat Vision and Jack. The couple married a year later and had a daughter, Ella, in 2002 and a son, Quinlin, in 2005.

In his personal life, Ben has also raised money for various causes. Including helping Jenifer Estess raise millions of dollars to combat A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He became a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2001 earning $32,000 for Project ALS. He had phoned his mother, Anne Meara, for help but lost on the question worth $250,000. In 2010, along with Gerard Butler, Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon, and director Paul Haggis, Ben visited a camp managed by Sean Penn and his Jenkins-Penn Humanitarian Relief Organization in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

It is estimated that Ben may have spent $7-11 million dollars of his career earnings but also probably possesses assets valued at around $2-3 million, not including investment assets. It was reported that, in 2016, Ben and Christine bought a $15.3 million dollar condo in New York City’s West Village. That was after having sold their previous NYC condo in 2013 for $9 million, which they had originally paid around $10 million for in 2008. In the interim, they were likely living in their condo in Chappaqua, New York, which they bought in 2010 for a reported $1 million.

In terms of their property in Los Angeles, the couple sold their home to Jason Statham for $7.3 million dollars in 2011. He later sold the property, in 2013, for $9.2 million to Johnny Galecki. Ben and Christine also co-own a property in Hawaii, a 14-acre blufftop mansion. In his investments, Stiller may have earned investment returns of around $50-74 million dollars. Therefore, it is estimated that Ben Stiller has a net worth of around $215 million dollars.

Summing-Up

Ben Stiller was destined to be in showbusiness, having been born to showbiz parents and having a tenacity to physically express himself. Whether it was performing around the house, on stage in theaters, or in front of a camera for movies or television shows, Ben had to be the center of attention. Audiences loved it, he has natural comedian charisma and has earned more because he has been able to direct and produce, as well as write, many of his own projects. While his film acting career has slowed down, Stiller is deeply involved in producing and has many new features announced and in post-production.