How much is Michael Fassbender worth?
Net Worth: | $35 Million |
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Profession: | Professional Actor |
Date of Birth: | April 2, 1977 (age 45) |
Country: | Germany |
Height: | 6 ft (1.83 m) |
About Michael Fassbender
Fassbender’s first feature film debut was in the fantasy war epic 300 (2007) as a Spartan warrior, since then he’s appeared in numerous hit movies.
Though you can find old Guinness and SAS Airlines commercials from the 2000s, which find Michael Fassbender swimming the Atlantic Ocean and appearing naked in front of a perturbed old woman, the actor has become known for his wiry physique and playing characters that are physically robust, such as in the movies 300, Shame, and Macbeth.
The actor is best known for carrying the torch down from Sir Ian McKellen by playing Magneto in the X-Men franchise alongside James McAvoy who plays Professor X. In acting school, Fassbender was classmates with fellow actor Tom Hardy.
Fassbender built a high profile towards the back end of the 2000s when he starred in several films that either performed extraordinarily well at the box office or were critical darlings. The stretch of movies started with 300, a movie directed by Zach Snyder, which is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, penned by the visionary Frank Miller.
The movie starring Gerard Butler as it’s lead was a huge success due to the special way it was filmed, using superimposition chroma key, which makes the frames of the movie look more like a comic book. Fassbender played Stelios, a highly trained Spartan soldier.
The movie performed well at the box office, making over $456.1 million world wide, which ain’t be for an actor’s first movie.
The following movie Fassbender starred in was his first ever lead role, and it was more of a lead than any actor could ask for, as Fassbender is in almost every scene of the film. Hunger followers an Irish prisoner as he leads an IRA hunger strike, and though Hunger wasn’t a big commercial success, it was universally critically acclaimed and Fassbender was praised by critics for carrying the movie.
Hunger caught the attention of film-making heavyweight Quentin Tarantino and subsequently cast Fassbender in his self-proclaimed masterpiece, Inglourious Basterds, a movie that rewrites the history of World War II in which a group of Jewish men brutally murder Hitler. Fassbender plays Archie Hicox, who helps the “Basterds” infiltrate the cinema where Hitler is watching a Nazi propaganda movie.
The film, which also starred Diane Kruger as a German-spy working for the British, was another huge success grossing $321.5 million dollars worldwide.
It was the beginning of the decade when Fassbender secured the biggest role he would ever have, acting in four giant movies in a billion dollar franchise. In 2011, the actor took on the role of primary X-Men villain, Magneto.
In an origins movie that followed the break up of Magneto and Professor X, X-Men: First Class reinvigorated the franchise after it had taken a couple of blows with under-performing entries that were severely panned by critics. This time, the movie was worshiped by critics as the movie retconned everything that had been wrong with the predecessors and it was a commercial success, making $353 million.
Fassbender went on to carry three more movies in the series after First Class’ with X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Fassbender proved that the series did not have to rely on Hugh Jackman and those four films combined grossed over $1.9 billion.
Though it is impossible to type cast such a skillful actor like Fassbender, casting directors look to Fassbender for very specific roles.
It may come as a surprise that despite Fassbender significantly helping the X-Men franchise become the multi billion franchise it is today, his salary for the movies have remained low. The actor took home a salary of an estimated $2.5 million for the third entry, X-Men Apocalypse, so it’s very likely that his starring roles in the series before that were much lower.
However, Fassbender may have a deal that gets him a take from the back-end, which means a percentage of the box office gross.
Though it has not been disclosed how much Fassbender’s salary was for a large number of his movies, a lot of the films he has starred in must have come with huge pay outs. The actor’s leading roles in films such as the aptly titled Steve Jobs, in which Fassbender plays the titular character, The Light Between Oceans, and Assassin’s Creed would have come with large salaries as the success of those films at the box office were almost completely on his shoulders.
The actor has a penchant for taking on roles in period dramas. His first lead role in a movie with a significant budget was 2010’s Centurion, a film about the Romans trying to conquer Britain.
Five years later he played the titular character in Macbeth, and the following year he was the lead in Assassin’s Creed. Though Assassin’s Creed is an adaptation of a video game, it still takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. In 2011 he starred in the David Cronenberg movie, A Dangerous Mind, in which he played Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology.
Directors often have Fassbender in mind before it has even gotten to the casting process of the movie. Fassbender has a great working relationship with multiple directors. Steve McQueen has directed the actor in three movies; Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years A Slave, with the final one winning multiple Academy Awards and grossing over $180 million worldwide despite having the low budget of $20 million.
Fassbender also works extremely well with Ridley Scott, and the two have worked together on Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and The Counselor.
His role as Counselor in The Counselor may not have been so well received critically, however the film went on to earn $71 million dollars from a $25 million dollar budget.
In Alien movies it is a tradition to feature a different android with every movie, but as Fassbender has now played an android in two Alien movies, it must be a testament to how well he works with Ridley Scott.
Fassbender’s Total Net Worth
Michael Fassbender has earned paychecks of up to $8 million dollars in his career, however he has also had many small roles which have paid him far less. In all however, he has still been able to rack up some $60 million dollars in career earnings when adding in his producing and other behind the scenes work, combined with the appearances that he has made as himself.
Considering Fassbender resides in Lisbon, Portugal, it is not easy to predict how much his tax obligations have been, not in an exact percentage anyway. It is likely though that he has paid far more in California and in the UK, than in Europe. Overall, it is estimated that Fassbender has managed to optimize his tax situation quite some, managing a total of just 44% tax on his total career earnings.
After tax, it is estimated that his total career income is at around $33.6 million, having paid $26.4 million dollars in taxes.
Michael Fassbender married Alicia Vikander in 2017 and they remain together. They have one child together, a son, and seem to like to take it easy in their spare time. Generally, Michael has not had much trouble in his personal life. He has described himself as a “lapsed Catholic”, saying that he still goes to church to light candles.
Fassbender paid £1.7 million pounds (about $2 million dollars) for what has been called “a hilltop hideway” in Portugal. He also owns a luxury apartment in Lisbon. It is estimated that some of his career earnings have also been earning him returns on the stock market, as well as more in safe bonds and other investments. It is estimated that he may have earned some $5 million dollars already from investing his earnings, that is after deducting fees and likely losses.
It is also estimated that he has spent around $2 million dollars on himself and his family. That is, money that he has spent and cannot get back. The figure also includes personal losses and miscellaneous costs. Overall, it is estimated that Michael Fassbender has a net worth of above $35 million dollars.
Summing-Up
Due to his prominent role in the billion dollar X-Men franchise, and making smart decisions early in his career, Michael Fassbender has an estimated net worth of $35 million. Though a follow up to the last X-Men movie is yet to be announced, it is extremely likely to happen, and there are more Fassbender lead movies in the works.
The actor will star in the comedy King Fury 2, something unprecedented for Fassbender, and he will star in the upcoming sports movie directed by Taika Waititi, Next Goal Wins.