How much is Matt Damon worth?
| Net Worth: | $200 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | October 8, 1970 (age 52) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
About Matt Damon
Matt Damon is a well established actor who has won numerous awards for his writing, acting and producing work. He rose to fame in the 1990s with Good Will Hunting co-starring Ben Affleck. Together, the pair co-wrote the film and pitched it to legendary film director, Gus Van Sant. Damon and Affleck earned a joint Oscar for “Best Original Screenplay” to commend their great achievement. They were in their mid-20s at the time and have since continued their prolific acting careers, becoming two of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.
Damon had many supporting roles in the early and mid-1990s, but it was when he caught the eye of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola who cast him in a lead role alongside Danny DeVito in The Rainmaker, that things really began to happen for him. Though it was considered a disappointment at the box office, Damon was well received by critics and it helped him gain some huge roles in the years to come. In the same year, Good Will Hunting, a movie that the actor had co-written and starred in with Ben Affleck, was a much bigger success. He won a joint Academy Award for “Best Writing” with Affleck and was nominated for “Best Actor in a Leading Role”. The movie earned $225 million from just a $10 million dollar budget.
Matt Damon is one of the few actors who has been nominated for Oscars in several different categories, including “Best Actor” for The Martian, “Best Supporting Actor” for Invictus, and “Best Film” for Manchester By The Sea, which he co-produced, and as mentioned, Damon won “Best Writing” in 1998 for Good Will Hunting.
When Matt Damon appeared as the titular role in Saving Private Ryan in 1998, it put his name next to Steven Spielberg‘s and audiences began to really take notice of the young rising star. The movie was a massive success both critically and financially, going on to gross almost half a billion dollars.
Damon’s success continued and to round out the ’90s he starred in Rounders, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Dogma, which was another on-screen collaboration with Ben Affleck. He and Ben Affleck have a great partnership not only off-screen but on-screen too, they wrote Good Will Hunting together and have since appeared together in almost a dozen movies.
Though it seems like Matt Damon stars in two or three movies a year, it’s clear that he always takes his choices seriously and he doesn’t follow trends; he has never accepted a superhero role. However, he has signed on to more than one franchise, the first being the Ocean’s franchise, which went on to have three sequels, collectively grossing $1.17 billion worldwide. Another franchise, one where he didn’t have to share the limelight with the likes of Brad Pitt and George Clooney, may be the most lucrative work in his career, The Bourne Identity.
The Bourne franchise’s popularity grew year on year, and before being handed down to Jeremy Renner, it culminated in The Bourne Ultimatum, for which Damon was paid $26 million. It has been reported that Damon has earned $87 million from the franchise, including 2016’s Jason Bourne.
From the 2000s, Damon was making $10 million per starring role, and when including a backend percentage of the box office profits, that number could be as high as $30 million for a single movie. Though he earned a base salary of $10 million for movies including The Departed and The Brothers’ Grimm, there is one role Damon turned down and possibly even regrets. Not only was he offered the main role in Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time (before Avengers: Endgame eclipsed it), but he was offered 10% of the movie’s profits.
As the story goes he was offered the role by director, James Cameron himself. If accepted, Damon has said in an interview in 2019 that he would have earned $250 million dollars for that one role. While the configuration of the production would have changed and therefore the outcome, it seems plausible that the movie’s success could have been greater (if one can imagine that) having had Matt on board. That said, Sam Worthington was praised for his role as Jack Sully. Nevertheless, it would have also likely been the highest salary in history for any acting role had Damon eventually been cast. He did make $3 million for starring in a 20-second ad for Nespresso however, which might have taken the sting out of it, as the advert is technically more money per second.
Besides his starring roles, Damon also takes on voice work for animated movies, including Happy Feet Two, and even voice-acted in the English speaking version of the critically acclaimed Studio Ghibli film, Ponyo . He has also been known to have a penchant for narrating documentaries. Finally, and increasingly more important to his net worth, has been his work in producing, including the Academy Award nominated Manchester by the Sea.
Damon’s Total Net Worth
Matt Damon is clearly loyal and a rare actor who is compatible with his directors, as he has several great working partnerships with several acclaimed filmmakers. He has worked on seven movies with Steven Soderbergh and four movies with Paul Greengrass.
Besides being well-liked among cast and crew, he has never taken a year off, not even a month by the looks of it. Every year Damon has starred in several movies, playfully done a couple of cameos, produced a couple of shows, argued with Jimmy Kimmel a whole bunch, and maybe done a voiceover for good measure.
Many people consider Damon to just be an actor, but his producing work has more recently become substantial. Since being nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Motion Picture of the Year” for Manchester by the Sea in 2017. He has directed 75 episodes of the reality series The Runner, 28 episodes of City on a Hill, as well as been part of many more productions.
In total, when factoring in his earnings from his acting roles which have been $5 million and up since appearing in The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999, and as much as a recorded $26 million for The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007. Combined with his work as a writer, producer, and his work on soundtracks, as well as all of the appearances that he has made as himself, including in advertising. Matt Damon has earned estimated total career income of $325 million dollars.
Of that amount, $23-39 million is expected to have been paid in business related costs. The remainder, $298 million, will have been taxed at around 49% as Damon has been residing between the states of California and New York and taxes weren’t as high during the 2000s. After tax, it is estimated that his career earnings are at around $153.94 million dollars, having paid $144.06 million dollars in taxes.
Matt Damon married Luciana Barroso in 2005 and they remain together. They have three children together, Isabella, Gia Zavala and Stella Damon. In his personal life, it is estimated that Damon may have spent $8-11 million dollars of his career earnings, including his donations, but also probably possesses assets valued at around $3-4 million, not including investment assets.
Damon has invested in real estate on both the West and the East coast and likely has a large amount of his money invested in securities, including stocks. In 2012, Damon bought a $15 million dollar property in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. He later sold the property in 2021 for $17.9 million.
In 2017, he purchased a $16.8 million dollar penthouse in Brooklyn Heights, New York City. A record breaking deal at the time as it was the highest price home property purchase ever made in Brooklyn. In his investments, he may have earned investment returns of $50-69 million dollars. Therefore, it is estimated that Matt Damon has a net worth of over $200 million dollars.
Summing-Up
Matt Damon has done just about everything in the movie business and has become highly successful doing it. It is not typical for a 25 year old kid to be writing a movie, especially as moving as Good Will Hunting, one can tell that he must have done a lot of private study to get him to that level so early on. Since then he has had just about the best acting career out of any actor of his generation, what is more, he has invested his efforts not only into investing his wealth, but also improving the lives of others through his donations and charitable work.
