Being famous can pay well. Even after a celebrity has passed on.
Forbes has been tracking the graveyard earnings for the past 20 years, and for whatever reason, this past year has seen the estates of the famous, or whoever owns their licensing rights, make quite a haul.
A total of $1.6 billion, to be specific, 72% more than last year, and the most staggering number is the top five on this list, making OVER $100 million each.
Care to guess who the top earner was? You won’t get it right, so I’ll tell you it was J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He’s been fed 49 years, but the past 12 months have been very good to whoever is cashing the checks because $500 million came in from the sale of Middle-Earth Enterprises. That is the company that handled the IP rights for movies, mercy, and video games.
Kobe Bryant was right behind, at $400 million, thanks to his estate’s sale of his equity in the sports drink from Coca-Cola, BodyArmor. That was the largest acquisition in the space ever, and Kobe was paid with stock for his involvement.
The cash register rings every year for Elvis Presley. His estate generated $110 million this past year, 45 years after he passed away.
Forbes list included nine musicians who collectively generated $700 million of the total, led by David Bowie at $250 million, Michael Jackson with $75 million, and Leonard Cohen at $55 million. (He’s the songwriter of (”Hallelujah”)
John Branca is an entertainment lawyer who managed Michael Jackson’s estate and told Forbes that performers are getting their affairs in order these days better than in the past.
“In the early days of rock n’ roll, companies owned everything and fought with the artists’ representatives to gain control of their IP. Now it’s swung back in the other direction as artists get older, and are estate planning, and tax planning, and selling their IP back to the companies. It’s come full circle.”
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