Will Smith Net Worth: Overflowing with Talent

The Will Smith net worth total of $186.4 million comes from a broad streak of talent, likability and smart picks when it comes to film roles. Adopting the persona of everyone’s friendly, funny older brother, Smith broke into fame through the music world but quickly segued to TV acting with his hit show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Massive success in that realm led very quickly to lead roles in blockbuster hits like the Bad Boys franchise and Independence Day. Permanently installed as a go-to fixture in Hollywood, Smith eschewed endorsement deals yet has still earned $302 million from acting so far, plus millions more from music and producing, for a total of $337 million in career income. That gives Smith a salary of $29 million a year, and although investments add another $75 million, taxes and expenses take away more than half. For a full list of Smith’s earnings by film and album, see the charts and tables below.

Its confirmed, Will Smith & Martin Lawrence to return for Bad Boys III. #whatchagonnado pic.twitter.com/aaO05vmeP8

— Troy Montero (@troymontero) August 23, 2016

Will Smith Net Worth Facts

Smith may not be quite as rich as stars like Leonardo DiCaprio at $217 million, but it’s important to understand that the Will Smith net worth sum of $186 million was not built with the help of endorsement deals. That may not seem like a big deal, but in today’s celebrity world it’s astounding. Very few stars shun endorsements and those who do, do so at their financial peril. Take Adele, who could be worth twice as much if not for her conviction to turn down offers from big companies. Or take Floyd Mayweather, who’s rich but only half as rich as he would be if not for domestic abuse charges that led the top advertisers to avoid him. For that matter, look at Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, who isn’t nearly as rich as Will Smith but now will be a whole lot poorer since his sponsors have started dropping him like a hot potato. Or look at Kim Kardashian, who built an empire of endorsements based on fame from a leaked sex tape. In that climate, Smith has built nearly $200 million of net worth on sheer talent alone and that’s unprecedented. His net worth is 60% bigger than Matt Damon’s at $115 million and 14 times smaller than Oprah’s at $2.56 billion. It’s 17 times bigger than Kylie Jenner’s, one third the size of rapper Jay Z’s and 28 times smaller than Donald Trump’s at $5.18 billion. Finally, Smith’s net worth is about 445 times smaller than richest person in the world Bill Gates with $83 billion.

Will Smith Net Worth Timeline

The Will Smith net worth story started way back in 1987 when Smith’s band DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince kicked off its debut album Rock the House, which sold a stellar 570,000 copies. That alone didn’t make Smith rich, but four more albums with the band resulted in the slow climb to Smith’s 1990 net worth of almost $1 million. The other effect of Smith’s music success was that it got him noticed and got him his first break in acting on a 1990 ABC Afterschool Special. It was clear from his performance on that show that Smith had mad talent as more than just a musician. Smith soon had his own TV show based on his musical fame, titled The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the show, Smith played a savvy teen from the streets of Philly who must fit in with a high class California family. The show ran seven seasons and more than proved Smith’s acting mettle, giving him a springboard to the starring role in the summer tentpole Independence Day in 1996. Earnings of $8 million from that role are visible as the first big uptick in the chart above. From there, Smith logged hit movie after hit movie, supplementing his income with producer credits on hits like I, Robot and The Pursuit of Happyness.

Will Smith Net Worth Sources: Acting, Music

The progression of the Will Smith net worth fortune goes like this: start with tons of raw talent, turn that into a million-dollar music career, quickly trade that for a million dollar TV career and work that into a multi-million dollar film career. The chart above shows how that wound up being a smart choice, since acting is where Smith made 90% of his money. All in all, the actor has made $302 million from acting, $17 million from music, nearly $13 million from producing and $5 million from appearing on talk shows, news shows and other TV shows. That’s a total earnings pile of $337 million, adjusted by $175 million in taxes, $50 million in expenses and $75 million in investment income. Smith’s average salary is $11 million, though in 2016 he’ll make a hefty $29 million from all sources.

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Will Smith Net Worth from Acting: $302 Million in Earnings

The table below shows a cross section of Smith’s acting roles and estimates of his pay for each. For the full list, scroll to the very bottom of this article. Neither Will Smith nor the movie studios release exact figures for movie payouts except in rare occasions like instances where there’s a court case and records are made public. The estimates in the table below are based on known values from situations like that, plus the box office take from each movie and percentage-of-sales figures cited by industry experts. For example, Smith was a relative unknown when he first appeared in a 1990 ABC After School Special. That means he probably earned the Screen Actors Guild standard rate of about $800 a day at the time for about six days of work or roughly $5,000. Smith’s base pay gradually grew as he gained clout as a Hollywood A-lister, but his real earnings came from profit share agreements from one blockbuster after another. Films like Independence Day, Men in Black, Enemy of the State and I Am Legend buoyed Smith’s earnings through occasional failures like Wild Wild West and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Will Smith Net Worth from Music: $17 Million

Music was the first big building block in the Will Smith net worth success story and it continued to be an outlet for the actor even after he’d made a name as a film star. Smith started his career in 1987 and made five studio albums with DJ Jazzy Jeff, selling nearly seven million copies worldwide. In ’93 Smith took a hiatus from rapping to focus on his film career, but he returned in Big Willie Style with the 1997 album of that name. The record featured songs from the smash hit movie Men In Black and sold more copies in one year than Smith sold in his entire seven year music career back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Smith released another three solo studio albums but, as the table below shows, sales fell off and he was wise to focus on making movies instead. Still, Smith’s music career would have been a huge success for all but the most famous musicians. It’s a tribute to his wide array of talent that for him it was just a bridge to a wider lifetime work.

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Will Smith Net Worth from Producing and Appearances

While acting and music are the chief sources of the Will Smith net worth figures, movie producing and talk show income lend a hand as well. Based on estimates from industry experts, Smith has made about $13.8 million from producing. It’s notable that most actors who dabble in producing, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, often take the helm in small pet projects that don’t amount to much. In Smith’s case that isn’t the case at all. Smith didn’t take on producing as a side job but jumped into it with both feet at a very young age, signing on as executive producer for 24 episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He also produced or executive produced I, Robot, Hitch, The Pursuit of Happyness, After Earth and Annie. Smith has worn the producer’s hat for a total of 21 films and TV series. His producer credits would make him a highly successful Hollywood producer even if he had absolutely no other talent or income. Since his acting income is so massive, it tends to render Smith’s producing work as a footnote.

According to the movie stats site IMDB.com, Smith has 316 credits for appearances as “self,” which include talk shows, news shows and other TV shows. While that’s a lot of TV, it hides the fact that many of those credits are for multiple appearances on each show. For instance Smith has been on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon four times, The Ellen DeGeneres Show four times and The Late Show with David Letterman 19 times. By IMDB’s count that’s only three of Smith’s 316 credits. Some quick math and rough estimating gives Smith about $5 million total from those appearances.

Will Smith Net Worth Calculations

Of course nobody gets away from death and taxes but at least death has the courtesy to wait until you’re done. Final Will Smith net worth calculations are shown below. Smith pays California’s top state income tax rate of 13.3% plus the top U.S. federal rate of 39.6%, taking more than half his income away before he gets to call it his. Expenses take away another 15% for agent fees, cost of living and other outlays. Smith does have some business deals but nothing on the order of a Jay Z or a Dr. Dre. Those deals include part ownership of the Philadelphia 76ers, BioBeats, Overbrook Entertainment and a private elementary school called New Village Leadership Academy, among several others. The ventures are all small but they lead us to believe Smith earns more than the traditional stock market average investment rate of 10% on his holdings. The table below shows Smith’s total earnings by year minus adjustments, with investments mitigating the losses from taxes and expenses.

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How Accurate Are Our Will Smith Net Worth Numbers?

Anyone wondering if our Will Smith net worth figures are exact can stop wondering: they’re not. They are however the best figures available online. That’s because we’ve taken the time to estimate each earnings amount from each song and movie based on the best information available, building solid data and then adjusting that data using advanced tax, expense and investment calculations. We believe Smith’s net worth could be as low as $150 million or as high as $210 million but we don’t concede that our numbers could be much further off from that in either direction.

Full List of Will Smith Acting Income by Movie

The estimates in the table below start with a knowledge of the S.A.G. rate sheet. From there, they give Smith a base appearance fee per film that grows steadily along with his fame, taken from knowledge of payouts made to other comparable movies stars. The base pay is adjusted by a percentage-of-sales figure that also grows with Smith’s fame. For each film, box office numbers were taken into account.

If you liked reading about Will Smith’ net worth, try this post about Johnny Depp’s net Worth or this one about Ryan Lochte’s net worth. All Will Smith net worth data in this article are based on our analysis of income streams, tax, expense and investment calculations, estimates and media reports and are provided here for entertainment purposes only.

Sources:

IMDB.com