How much is Tim Burton worth?
| Net Worth: | $60 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Director |
| Date of Birth: | August 25, 1958 (age 64) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.82 m) |
About Tim Burton
Tim Burton is a movie director known for his outlandish style, gothic aesthetic, and using practical effects. Not only does he have a love of theatrics, but the filmmaker also has a love for Christmas and Halloween, often using both holidays as a theme for most of his movies, sometimes even at the same time.
The director is known for continuously working with the same cast and crew, including Johnny Depp, Michael Keaton, his wife (now ex), Helena Bonham Carter, and the musical composer, Danny Elfman. After gaining critical recognition in the 80s, Burton became Hollywood royalty in 1990s, and his most notable works include Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Burton’s directorial debut was a strange amalgam and a crossover between artists that would have been shocking if audiences knew what Burton would go on to direct in the future. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, a continuation of the TV show The Pee-Wee Herman show, was a child friendly slapstick comedy with a surprisingly little amount of Burton’s quirks. However, the film was very successful for film with a budget as low as seven million dollars, and it lead to Burton being offered more freedom by the studios. However, at that time, the studios might not have known what they were getting themselves in to.
What came next was the first authentically Tim Burton movie, directing his very own screenplay, Beetlejuice. The movie, starring the oddball Michael Keaton, was a strange tale about the afterlife full of miniature set designs, oil painting backdrops, monsters made from practical effects, and massively contrasting colors. And the music that soundtracked the movie sounded like it’d be more suited to a freak-cabaret show. But despite how it sounds on paper, the movie took audience by storm with its unique audio/visual experience.
It made $74.2 million in worldwide box office earnings.
The streak continued with the release of Batman and Batman Returns. Batman was unprecedented at the time, as no comic book movie had ever looked so dark, and with the villains being gangsters and lunatics, the studio was genuinely worried that the movie would fail miserably.
On top of that, producers thought that Burton casting Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne was a terrible choice, as Keaton for being more of a goofball romantic comedy actor at the time, not the brooding and masculine alpha male that Bruce Wayne is known as. But low and behold, the film broke box office records against all odds, and the movie, along with its sequel, is known as being the catalyst for filmmakers being able to make such gritty superhero movies today.
The director continued to throw out dark fairytale movies one after the next, building his identity as a goth icon with the cult classics Edward Scissorhands and Sleepyhollow, and others. However, the 2000s saw him shift in to much more high concept movies with humongous budgets, straying outside of his unique style. Burton remade several classic movies including Planet of The Apes, Charlie and the Choclate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, all to varying degrees of success.
When it comes to directors, it’s hard to say how much they make exactly per film as many of them can have a hand in writing the movie or producing it, so their pay can be unpredictable. It’s more than likely that Burton’s pay comes from the net profit of the movie as he writes, directs, and produces most of his own films. Not only that, but he gets paid handsomely in royalties, DVD sales, and syndication sales.
To understand how much Burton gets paid, a look at his movies’ performances at the box office shows that he most likely has dump trucks full of money backing up on to his lawn every morning. The total gross profit of Burton’s discography is over three billion dollars.
The director’s first overwhelmingly lucrative film was 1989’s Batman, which made $411.6 million worldwide, and his biggest success to date is Alice In Wonderland, which broke the billion dollar mark. Even his films that have been panned by the press and audiences still perform well, as the critically derived Planet of the Apes remake still earned $362.2 million!
Though the Burton aesthetic has been heavily parodied, as the production more often than not comes down to a check list that the costume design and set design departments have to tick off, very few other directors can be considered an auteur like Burton.
Even general audiences can spot a Burton production a mile away with its gothic set design and jangly piano music from Danny Elfman. And at the time when the industry was shifting to computer generated effects, the director often insisted on using practical affects instead, which made for some of the most visually stunning movies of the 90s and 2000s. Even the director himself has a gothic look about him with his shaggy hair and black shades that even his identity is marketed and sold on mugs and posters!
Though Burton didn’t discover Johnny Depp, Burton catapulted the actor’s movie career by trusting him to carry entire movies on his shoulders.
And in return, Depp helped Burton’s later movies become commercial successes after he became the bankable movie star that he is today. The director has worked with Depp eight times, with Depp having the lead role in every one of them.
Together, the duo have made over two billion dollars for studios. But Depp isn’t the only actor that Burton has had this relationship with, as the director basically spun the crazy Keaton in to who he is today. First starring as the wacky titular character in Beetlejuice, then in the Batman series, and even years later with Dumbo, it’s forming robust relationships like these that help directors succeed.
In recent years, Burton has formed a great working bond with Disney, and there is no more lucrative movie company you could strike up a bond with than that.
Burton has worked with Disney on three occasions, with the first being the smash hit remake of Alice In Wonderland, and then with Frankenweenie and last year’s Dumbo.
Summing-Up
From forging his own aesthetic that is completely unique to him, Burton has released several iconic films embedded in pop culture that students will have posters of on their walls for decades to come. It’s for this reason that Tim Burton has an estimated net worth of $60 million.
Though Burton’s next venture is unknown, he has had several projects in the works for years, including swirling rumors about a potential Beetlejuice sequel. With Michael Keaton enjoying a huge comeback, it could be possible now more than ever.
