How much is Nicolas Cage worth?
| Net Worth: | $25 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | January 7, 1964 (age 59) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 6 ft (1.83 m) |
About Nicolas Cage
Born to comparative literature professor August Coppola, the brother of director Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas Kim Coppola changed his name early on in his career. He took his stage name from the comic book character Luke Cage, and reinventing his image, quickly gained a reputation in Hollywood for his quirky roles and excellent acting skills. Cage intuitively knew how to hold an audience, in an almost trancelike state audiences were drawn in and Cage delivered performance after performance in some of the biggest movies of the ’90s and 2000s.
While Cage did for a time study theatre at Beverly Hills High School he later dropped out after being cast as the role of Brad’s Bud, in the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Unfortunately for Cage, most of his scenes were cut and he had to turn to selling popcorn at Fairfax Theater while still working on his acting career. However, after being cast as Randy in Valley Girl, in 1983, his career cranked up immediately. He proceeded to appear in two or three films a year until 1990, at which time, his net worth was already over $10 million and he was one of the biggest up and coming stars in the business.
Many consider that Cage’s excellent acting skills had been developed through his method acting style and his use of improvisation. While it is generally accepted that he dropped his method acting after smashing a street-vendors remote-control car to experience and incorporate rage into his gangster character, Vincent Dwyer, in The Cotton Club (1984). He has continued to improvise throughout his career, even to the outward annoyance of other actors. It seems for an actor like Cage however, he doesn’t care, because everything has been about the perfection of his craft and delivering the perfect portrayal to audiences.
His approach to his career has paid and earned him hundreds of millions of dollars in career earnings. Unfortunately, he has also experienced financial troubles. Perhaps something to do with buying things like the former prince of Iran, Ali-Reza Pahlavi’s, Lamborghini. Or the incredibly expensive fake castle on the outskirts of Los Angeles, or was it the dinosaur skull, or perhaps the pygmy heads? Whatever it was, Nicolas Cage reportedly blew through $100-150 million dollars and today is worth not nearly what he would expected to be.
Cage’s Total Net Worth
Considering Nicolas Cage has had career earnings of some $250 million dollars his net worth may come as a surprise. Cage was a major Hollywood star, an icon, in the ’90s and 2000s. In fact he earned around $175 million dollars from the start of his career in 1981 to 2010. Astonishingly, he also reportedly spent (or lost) most of it.
For his role as Memphis Raines in Gone in Sixty Seconds, Cage was reportedly paid $20 million. He was paid similar amounts for Windtalkers, National Treasure and many more. However, his penchant for spending money is essentially unseen as in a decade he reportedly spent through almost all of his earnings. After purchasing a private island in the Bahamas, luxury yachts, supercars owned by Iran princes, dinosaurs skulls and pygmy heads, by 2009, he was hit with a lien for unpaid taxes of $6.2 million by the IRS.
In these circumstances it is difficult to know exactly who was at fault. Cage filed a lawsuit against his investment managers accusing them of negligence and fraud that sent him “down a path toward financial ruin.” Of course while everything that Cage bought will have held some value, in the event of a sale, a 67 million year old dinosaur skull is only worth what somebody else is willing to pay for it. What seems to be the case, is that Cage, counting on his money being prudently invested was not concerned about these added expenses. He went on a spending spree in the mid-2000s and by the time the financial crisis hit he was already in no place good. Allegedly, his financial managers had made risky real estate investments, and so, instead of helping him earn money from his investments, he may have lost some $40-60 million dollars (or more).
His financial losses in his investments, when coupled with his major over spending, caused him to need to liquidate assets and likely at a far lesser price than what he had paid for them. In normal circumstances, had his investments been sound, his purchases could have been kept and even later auctioned as appreciating assets. However, very few people want to buy pygmy heads by the basket and by the time people knew that Cage was going out of business, he was likely fortunate to get whatever he could for the cars, yachts and the Mongolian dinosaur skull.
He has also married five women, has been divorced four times, has three children and has likely paid tens of millions in spousal support, child support and similar settlements and agreements. While it is difficult to know exactly what happened and where his finances sit today, the general consensus seems to be that Nicolas Cage has a net worth of around $25 million. It may well be more than that amount, after all, nobody loves a story more than about a famous celebrity who loses almost all of his wealth.
Summing-Up
Nicolas Cage was one of the biggest actors of the ’90s and 2000s. He was paid $20 million dollars per movie part at the peak of his career and has also earned through his producing and as part of percentage deals of the box office gross. While he may have earned some $250 million dollars in total pre-tax career earnings, he has also spent a tremendous amount of money which became untenable when his investments failed in the late 2000s. Fortunately for Cage, he still remains one of the best actors of his generation. He is involved in multiple movie projects, including the upcoming Retirement Plan, and in 2022, he paid off his $6 million dollar debt to the IRS.
