Who are the wealthiest celebrities in 2024?

Forbes has today published the list of the world's richest billionaire celebrities - at least for now. A ranking that reveals interesting elements given that the celebrities included in the list, which counts 14 entries, are not so much actors but entrepreneurs: producers, owners, and founders of brands, athletes who have invested in profitable partnerships, and only two giants of the music industry. However, dominating the list remains the cinema: the richest celebrity of 2024 is indeed George Lucas, who more than ten years ago sold his production company, LucasFilm, to Disney for 4 billion dollars and now has 5.5 billion. He is closely followed by Steven Spielberg with 4.8 billion dollars in his pocket, due to his contractual demands that assign him a percentage of the sales of his films but also a fraction of the proceeds from the Indiana Jones themed attractions at Universal parks. In third place is Michael Jordan, the world's first billionaire athlete, with 3.2 billion dollars partly coming from partnerships with brands, including Nike, which alone are worth 1.8 billion, and partly from the sale of the Charlotte Hornets which earned him 3 billion last August.

Next come Oprah Winfrey who has reinvested her high earnings as a talk show queen in real estate investments and production studios, accumulating 2.8 billion; Jay-Z, the first billionaire of hip-hop with 2.5 billion, who besides owning stakes in Uber and Block, made 33 million by selling 50% of his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, to LVMH in 2021 and a majority stake in his cognac brand, D'Usse, to Bacardi in 2023 for 750 million dollars. Behind him is Kim Kardashian, with 1.7 billion, coming from the success of her brands SKIMS and from the sale to Coty of KKW Beauty, now closed, for 200 million. In seventh place is the father of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, with 1.5 billion, who earned a billion in 2021 by selling a portion of his special effects studio to Unity Software. In eighth place, Tyler Perry, with 1.4 billion, is instead one of the two "pure" celebrities on the list as his money comes entirely from his creative activity and not from entrepreneurship. In ninth place is Rihanna, who has a net worth identical to Perry's, largely coming from Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty and therefore not from her musical work.

Then follow three athletes: Tiger Woods and LeBron James, the only two billionaire athletes still active in their respective sports, with fortunes of 1.3 and 1.2 billion respectively coming from contracts with brands and private entrepreneurial initiatives; as well as Magic Johnson who besides owning stakes in several basketball teams earns a lot from an insurance business named EquiTrust. With the same net worth as James and Johnson is Dick Wolf, the mind behind series like Law & Order, marking the first time the producer and showrunner is on the list, while with 1.1 billion dollars Taylor Swift closes the ranking as the only pop star in the group, brought into the billionaire list after the unprecedented success of her Eras Tour - she is the first pop star to enter the billionaire ranks solely through her musical work, demonstrating the enormity of her global success.