Here's How Jim Carrey's Net Worth Reached $180 Million
Highlights
- Jim Carrey retired from Hollywood in 2022 with a $180 million fortune, allowing him the option to step away from filmmaking.
- Carrey has remained in the spotlight by creating political and NFT art, with all profits donated to charities.
- Despite starting as a comedian and facing setbacks, Carrey rose to fame with successful movies like Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, earning high salaries and box office success.
Jim Carrey is considered one of the biggest names in Hollywood thanks to his natural talent in comedy, and his amazing ability to manipulate his facial expressions. He worked as a stand-up comedian for almost two decades and acted in a variety of movies and television series.
Carrey would find his major success mostly in cinema. He was featured in seven movies with a supporting role and 28 movies in a leading role that netted him around $180 million. Here is a closer look at how he amassed his wealth over the years.
Updated August 2023: In 2022, Jim Carrey announced his retirement from Hollywood. And given the fact that he has amassed a $180 million fortune from his nearly three decades on the big and small screens, Carrey has that option.
Carrey has remained in the spotlight over the years, despite his desire to step away from filmmaking, by putting his thoughts and feelings of the state of the US into political art. He also ventured into the world of NFT art, where the piece morphs in front of the viewer's eyes.
Any and all profits Carrey makes from his art are donated to different charities close to Carrey's heart. And while critics may not love what he paints, they cannot fault Carrey for his giving nature.
Jim Carrey's Early Life
James Eugene Carrey was born on the 17th of January, 1962, in the Toronto suburb of New Market, Ontario, in Canada. He has three other siblings and they were all raised in a Catholic household. His father Percy was a musician and provided well for his family, but he soon lost his job. Carrey had to quit school in order to help his family by working as a janitor.
Nevertheless, throughout his childhood, Jim always had a talent for comedy. He was noticed by comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who signed the young man to open his tour performances. Dangerfield would later take Carrey to Las Vegas to perfect his comedy act.
Jim Carrey's Early Work
After his stint in Las Verga, Carrey would later move to Hollywood where he performed in The Comedy Store in 1982. This was followed by his debuting on national television performing a bit on The Tonight Show.
Carrey then applied to NBC's Saturday Night Live as a cast member but was not selected for the part. But, not all was lost as from 1990 to 1994, he would become a regular cast member of the comedy series In Living Color.
Carrey earned $25,000 per episode for his comedic work.
Jim Carrey's Rise to Fame
In 1994, Carrey's illustrious career in Hollywood would begin when he was cast in the leading role in three separate movies. Each of the films, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective ($107 million), The Mask ($351 million), and Dumb and Dumber ($247 million), became a big commercial success.
Despite the success, Carrey only earned $350,000 and $540,000 from the first two films. That all changed for Dumb and Dumber though, as Carrey was paid $7 million for being the leading man. Unfortunately, his co-star, Jeff Daniels, who was on board with Carrey to not wear wigs for the film, was not as lucky and made only a fraction of what Carrey did for the film.
This did not deter Daniels from working with Carrey again in the future, however, as he would go on to narrate Carrey's book, Memoirs and Misinformation.
In 1995, Jim portrayed one of the villains, The Riddler, in the superhero movie Batman: Forever ($336 million). The movie received mixed reviews but was a box-office success. His second role that year was the comedy sequel Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls ($212 million). Unlike the previous movie, the Canadian actor got a huge pay increase and netted $15 million for the role.
Jim Carrey Was Hollywood's Highest-Paid Actor In The Late 1990s
To the dismay of his fans, Carrey would only star in one movie for the next two years.
In 1996, Carrey's starred with director Ben Stiller (Stiller's third movie as a director) in the dark comedy Cable Guy ($102 million). Unfortunately, the movie had mostly negative reviews despite the A-list actors in the film.
Carrey's next project was Liar Liar ($302 million), released in 1997. Unlike Cable Guy, it was a commercial success that received positive reviews from critics. But despite the discrepancy in reviews, Carrey earned a whopping $20 million in each of his last two films, becoming one of the first actors to do so. As such, Carry became one of the highest-paid actors in the late 1990s.
Jim Carrey's Highest Salary For A Movie
Throughout the next two decades, Carrey would continue to be featured in many movie projects from different genres. Because of this, Carrey's fans got to see him tackle non-comedic roles for the first time. And both they are critics were impressed with his work in Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (2004), Number 23 (2007), and A Christmas Carol (2009).
However, the biggest payday he ever got was in the most unlikely comedy film, Yes Man.
Carrey decided to make a bet on the success of the movie by not getting paid at all in exchange for having 36% of the movie's back-end profits. This meant if the movie failed at the box office, Carrey would make only a small salary from it.
Luck proved to be on Carrye's side, however. Yes Man earned $225 million at the box office and Carrey netted $32 to $50 million for his role.
Jim Carrey's Top 10 Highest-Paying Roles
Jim Carrey's Top 10 Highest-Grossing Films
Jim Carrey's Latest Work
Carrey's most recent movie role was as the antagonist Dr. Robotnik in Sonic The Hedgehog. The movie became the second-highest-grossing film of 2020, bringing in over $300 million. It was also the highest-grossing video game film adaptation in the United States and Canada, surpassing Detective Pikachu.
The last TV role Carrey was a part of was Kidding, a comedy-drama TV series. Its second and final season aired in February-March 2020.
While Carrey has decided to slow down his acting career, he has made cameos both in The Weeknd's music video, Out of Time, and his short, the Dawn FM Experience.
Carrey has also dedicated much of his time over the past decade to his art. While the bulk of his fortune is from his acting career, the prints of Carrey's work go for $800 and the originals go for much more. The art is not done to make an income, however, as Carrey donates anything he makes to charity. It is done instead to "free" the actor. And with a $180 million fortune, if Carrey needed to step away from Hollywood and make art, he has more than enough means to do so.
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