How much is Terrence Howard worth?
| Net Worth: | $4 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | March 11, 1969 (age 53) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 6 ft (1.84 m) |
About Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard is an actor from Chicago who rose to fame in the 1990s in independent movies and went on to hammer out one award winning performance after the next in the 2000s with movies such as Hustle & Flow and Crash. The actor would later have a starring role in the most successful movie franchise of all time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, albeit briefly. Howard is now well known for playing Lucious Lyon, the lead in the television Fox drama Empire.
Most recently he played the role of Coach Cutting in the real-life-inspired high school wrestling story, Triumph.
As Howard starting getting roles and gaining popularity at break neck speed in the 90s, when he was only in his early 20s, it didn’t take the actor long to start being offered credible roles with pages and pages of dialogue. His first major success at the box office was the drama Mr. Holland’s Opus, in which a struggling high school music teacher tries to balance work and taking care of his deaf son. The young Howard starred alongside heavyweights such as Richard Dreyfuss and William H. Macy.
The film went on to not only be nominated for dozens of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture, but it also made over $106.3 million worldwide.
The 2000s saw Howard’s brand reach heights not even he could have expected. In 2004 he co-starred in Crash, which featured an all star ensemble cast, was again nominated for several awards, and this time won the Academy Award for Best Picture. At this point, it was beginning to look like Howard was a good luck charm, and if he was featured in a movie, it would very likely be nominated for dozens of awards and highly deserving of praise.
The following year, Howard scored his first major leading role in Hustle & Flow, a gangster drama revolving around a hustler and pimp who has a dream to become a rapper. The movie earned Howard his first and so far only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Howard had several more notable appearances in the 2000s, such as in Four Brothers, Big Momma’s House, and Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, but in 2008 Howard scored the most important role of his career. The actor was cast in Iron Man to play James Rhodes, Tony Stark’s sidekick. However, Howard was replaced in Iron Man 2 with his Crash co star, Don Cheadle.
After troubles with negotiating his way in to Iron Man 2. Howard found success in another direction and closer to his roots, playing the leading role in the Fox drama Empire, which is based around a fictional hip hop label and the family that run it, with Howard playing the head of the family.
The show was co-created by Lee Daniels, who has a strong resume of award winning and financially successful movies such as Precious, Monster’s Ball, and The Butler, the latter of which Howard also starred in. Empire has enjoyed millions of viewers, especially in its first season, as over 17 million households tuned in for the season finale. Howard was the star of the show for all six seasons.
As Howard was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the very beginning, right at the franchise’s inception with Iron Man, it would be easy to think that Howard has made tens of millions of dollars from the Marvel movies, just like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and the rest of the gang. However, Howard only starred in the one movie, as he was replaced by Don Cheadle, some rumors claim because Howard was hard to work with on set.
Entertainment Weekly mention one source that claimed the film’s producers and director Jon Favreau were the ones who were not happy with Howard’s performance, apparently forcing them to edit or reshoot scenes. I guess it could have also been a problem among the cast members because the movie featured some of the biggest names in the industry.
Howard, he was allegedly promised eight million in the event of an Iron Man sequel, was (seemingly) sandbagged by Marvel producers or directors or actors or others; and so, when Iron Man 2 finally was green lit, he was apparently offered just one million to reprise the role, instead. Needless to say, Howard declined the offer.
He was replaced by Don Cheadle who I love but still feel that Terrence was the better fit for the part.
Surprisingly enough, Howard’s salary for his role in Iron Man was much larger than that of Robert Downey Jr.
The sidekick earned between $3.5 million to $4.5 million compared to Downey’s $500,000. It is even reported that Howard took a pay cut just so that Downey could be offered more money. Marvel disputes this version of events. But according to Howard, the money promised to him for Iron Man 2 would go to Robert Downey Jr. instead.
“The person I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second one, took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out,” Terrence Howard has said.
Irregardless of what happened with Marvel, Howard landed on his feet and from 2015 to 2020 he played the role of Lucious Lyon in Empire. A six-season drama series based around a fictional hip-hop label and the family that run it.
Howard made a high of $250,000 per episode on Empire, which adds up considering Howard starred in 102 episodes of the show. If that figure is the average of how much Howard has been paid for each episode of Empire, then the actor would have accrued an estimated $25.5 million over the period of the show.
“Every artist has to grow, and has to challenge themselves with a new form of expression.” Terrence Howard
Howard’s love of music has helped the actor carve out his own niche and pave the way for him to earn his iconic role in Empire.
Since the beginning of his career he has been working with musicians and creating some of the most unique musical films. He starred in Ray, the biographical movie about Ray Charles, Hustle & Flow, the 50 Cent vehicle Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, and the OutKast project Idlewild. Empire was the big pay off for the actor after working on so many musical projects.
The actor must have good karma as he is known for giving people a chance, besides accepting a pay decrease just so his co-star in Iron Man could be given an increase, Howard took a risk and worked with 50 Cent when the rapper hadn’t had a single acting lesson in his life. The ways things work out in life can be unexpected but as the Dalai Lama says, “sometimes it’s the things that you don’t get that are the true blessings”.
And life may have actually cooled down and got better after Iron Man 2 fell through and he attained the role on Empire.
The two co-starred in Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ when few other actors would. Samuel L. Jackson even said in an interview that he turned down the role in the 50 Cent movie because he didn’t want to work with a rapper who was untrained in acting.
Summary
A brief stint in a popular movie franchise and a starring role on a Fox TV show is all you need to make a fortune in Hollywood. And Terrence Howard has done great work besides, including one of my favorites Dead Presidents, all told earning him an estimated net worth of $4 million or thereabouts.
Though the actor announced his retirement at the end of 2019, he starred in Cut Throat City, an action movie directed by Wu-Tang Clan member RZA. Triumph also came out in 2021 and we don’t think that’s the last we’ll see of this great actor.
