How Much Is Jim Carrey Really Worth?
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Jim Carrey has been entertaining the world for decades, but he didn't start out as the superstar he is today. It took a great deal of time and work to get the recognition he deserved, and nowadays, it's hard to find anyone who doesn't know who he is. Carrey was ubiquitous throughout the 1990s, and he's continued working in iconic roles throughout the past 30-plus years. Of course, he also didn't become a massive success right out of the gate.
As Carrey later reflected to Oprah Winfrey, in addition to hustling in the comedy and TV scenes in the '70s and '80s, the then-struggling actor also turned to visualization to manifest gigs in showbiz. "I would imagine having film directors interested in me, saying, 'You know, I like your work,'" he said. "I had nothing at that time, and it made me feel better. I'd get home and think, 'Well, I can have these things. They are out there. I haven't taken hold of them yet, but they're out there.'" However, he also noted, "You can't just visualize and then go eat a sandwich."
Clearly, Carrey's hard work — and visualization — paid off, as his career eventually blossomed. As he began building his wealth, he even broke new ground with massive increases in his pay, setting the standard for high-profile salaries. While the funnyman has earned an estimated $300 million in acting alone, Celebrity Net Worth estimates his net worth to be $180 million, at the time of this writing. This is the path Jim Carrey took in building his impressive fortune.
Jim Carrey's family struggled financially
Jim Carrey is, and always has been, a funny guy who can make a lot of weird faces. He started doing impressions in front of a mirror when he was eight, and eventually saw this passion as a career opportunity. Per Yahoo!, when he was 10, he wrote a letter to Carol Burnett, asking if he could appear on her show. She declined, but as he later explained on the series' 50th anniversary special, "I was a young, aspiring comedian."
Sadly, Carrey's upbringing became difficult when his family became homeless while he was still in high school, per the National Post. As the actor told The Hollywood Reporter, his family lived out of their VW Van, and he shared a tent with his brother, John. "I know it sounds sad," Jim said. "... But in a weird way it was a much happier time." The family's financial situation improved when his father got work in Scarborough, Ontario. The brothers worked at the same factory: John took shifts pulling security, and Jim worked on the custodial staff during the night shifts, which they did "in exchange for living across the street" (via the National Post).
Making ends meet with an after-school job can be difficult for any teenager, and it wasn't long before Jim dropped out of school at the age of 16. While his janitor work helped pay the bills for a bit, he dreamed of working in comedy, and his family supported him.
He put in his hours working comedy clubs at an early age
Jim Carrey's path to working as a professional comedian started out like most in the field: He did stand-up at comedy clubs. One thing that set him apart from the rest of his peers, however, was his age. When he first took the stage at Toronto's Yuk Yuk's comedy club in 1977, he was 15 years old. Unfortunately, he bombed, but he wasn't too discouraged, per the National Post. He worked on his material while mopping floors at the factory, and he didn't give up. In 1978, he dropped out of school, and the following year, he scored his first paying comedy gig.
Carrey made $20 (Canadian) for a 20-minute routine at the Hay Loft club in Scarborough, where he did "a copy of Don Addams meets the roving reporter." He also did several impressions, including Don Harron, which he told the man himself on "Don Harron's Morningside" in 1982. That payday went a long way in validating Carrey's ambitions. He continued refining his act as much as possible, and before long, he was headlining at Yuk Yuk's.
The club's founder, Mark Breslin, told the National Post that Carrey's performance at 18 was considerably better than the one three years earlier. He recalled a review in the Toronto Star, which read, "'I've seen the future of comedy, and it's Jim Carrey.' The next night, there were lineups around the block." He became well-known for his impressions, which numbered around 105 in 1982. Still, he wasn't finished refining his act.
Jim Carrey started working in television and film
Jim Carrey is an impressionist, but he started altering his routine after hitting a wall many comics have hit: He tried out for "Saturday Night Live," but wasn't selected. His audition tape for the 1981 season consisted of a "post-nuclear Elvis" and other impressions. He reportedly tried out two more times in the mid-'80s, but as executive producer Lorne Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, "I wasn't at the Jim Carrey audition, but somebody who was there said, 'I don't think Lorne would like it,' and they were probably wrong, but it doesn't matter."
In the meantime, Carrey started making appearances in low-profile TV roles throughout the '80s, including landing a recurring role on "The Duck Factory," and also acted in several feature films. His true big break came in 1990, when he joined the cast of a different sketch comedy show, "In Living Color." While "ILC" had a lot of competition with "SNL," it carved a niche in the market and did something else: It introduced the world to Carrey.
For most people who came to know Carrey from his early work, it wasn't his earliest movies like "Finders Keepers" or "Once Bitten" — it was "ILC." His impressions and hilarious original characters like Fire Marshall Bill, the Background Guy, and Grandpa Jack McGee kept viewers coming back week after week. While it's unclear how much he made throughout the 1980s, Celebrity Net Worth reported that his "ILC" salary was $25,000 an episode. After appearing in over 120 episodes, Carrey reportedly earned $3.2 million.
His early film work brought in a decent amount of cash
Jim Carrey's film work through the 1980s earned him a decent enough wage, but it was far from the kinds of salaries he commands these days. Unfortunately, the star's salary information from his work on "Earth Girls are Easy," "Pink Cadillac," and "Peggy Sue Got Married" isn't public, so to see where he started building his fortune, you need to look at the '90s. By 1994, Carrey had pocketed a little over $3 million from "In Living Color," as previously mentioned, and that same year, things changed for him forever.
It was undeniably Jim Carrey's year, as it made him the first actor to appear in three No. 1 films in a single year. According to Box Office Mojo, "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "The Mask," and "Dumb and Dumber" collectively earned over $474 million at the box office. Still, his salary for those films wasn't incredibly high. For "Ace Ventura," Celebrity Net Worth reported that Carrey pocketed $350,000, which wasn't bad for a relatively unknown actor starring in a comedy. That same year, he spent a little under two months filming "The Mask" for $540,000, but when that movie blew up, so too did Carrey's salary.
It also considerably elevated Carrey's status as an A-lister in Hollywood, and when he signed on to play Lloyd in "Dumb and Dumber," he pocketed $7 million for the effort. The following year, he more than doubled that amount with "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls," for which he was paid $15 million.
Jim Carrey's the original $20 million actor
Earning $15 million was big, but for Jim Carrey, it was a steppingstone to a record-breaking payday in 1996. It's often difficult to find an actor's salary information, as it can be confidential, but for Carrey, his salary for "The Cable Guy" became big news — and it changed the film industry.
According to Business Insider, he was the first actor to earn a $20 million paycheck for appearing in a movie. On top of that, he negotiated a deal for 15% on the backend. That impressive salary and massive pay boost, which was worth about $35.8 million in 2022, upended the way Hollywood executives negotiated salaries. According to Variety, execs had kept the salary cap at $15 million for years, and things had to change when Carrey started making more than Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, and other big-name Hollywood stars.
Variety's former deals reporter, Mike Fleming Jr., recalled that "every major top-of-the-line movie star got a $5 million raise, that's what happened." According to the Los Angeles Times, the increased salary threatened the slim margin for Hollywood profits. "The Cable Guy" barely broke even with a "$102.8 million global haul on a $47 million budget." per Variety. Ultimately, that didn't matter much for Carrey, who continued making big-money deals for years after the flick hit theaters.
His lucrative move into more dramatic roles
Jim Carrey started out as a comedian, but he quickly proved to the world that he was more than capable of playing dramatic roles. While he often interjects comedy into his serious performances, his work on "Man on the Moon," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and "The Truman Show" made him one of the most diverse actors working in Hollywood in the early 2000s. However, he often took a pay cut to land some of the roles that let him flex his acting chops.
According to The Richest, Carrey's salary for "Eternal Sunshine" was $10 million. For "I Love You, Phillip Morris," Carrey cut his salary to $15 million, so he could take the part. He told Parade magazine, "There are very few scripts that I would come across that I would pay to do, and this was one of them." After 2010, Carrey's salary fluctuated across the board as he diversified the types of roles he took. Many of his salary increases included backend deals, with his most lucrative coming from a surprising source. According to Forbes, Carrey earned a total of $30 million for "Yes Man" via a $20 million salary and 36.2% of the backend.
Regardless of these big paydays, Carrey's status and changes in how the film industry operates don't always bring in a $20 million payday any longer. Most of his work in the 2010s and beyond earned him around $15 million per movie, which was his salary for "Kick-Ass 2" and "Dumb and Dumber To."
Jim Carrey has been married and divorced twice
Jim Carrey has been in numerous high-profile relationships throughout his life, and he has a history of dating his co-stars. Before he got to that point, he was married to Melissa Womer. The couple wed in 1987 and divorced in 1995. Their divorce settlement was contentious; as The Spokesman-Review reported, Carrey tried to give Womer a "one-time-only settlement of $500,000, and $25,000 a month for alimony and child support." Womer refused, and the couple settled the matter privately, per Chron.com.
One year after his divorce, Carrey married his "Dumb and Dumber" co-star, Lauren Holly. Rumors spread that Holly was the impetus for Carrey's divorce, but Holly denies breaking up their marriage. Holly said that she feels for Womer in an interview with Rolling Stone, "but they were completely apart when Jim and I met." Though they started out strong (and in the spotlight), Carrey and Holly's marriage ended after a year. Holly spoke about her heartbreak in 2013 on "George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight," saying, "No one ever really had the story right."
While Carrey hasn't married since ending things with Holly, he did become engaged to his "Me, Myself, & Irene" co-star Renée Zellweger. He once described Zellweger as "the great love of my life," as he was reminded during an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show." Carrey also dated Jenny McCarthy for five years, and according to Us Weekly, he's previously been involved with Linda Ronstadt, January Jones, Anine Bing, Anchal Joseph, Anastasia Vitkina, Cathriona White, and Ginger Gonzaga.
He's acquired a hefty real estate portfolio
When he first started out, Jim Carrey was still living at home with his family. But things changed as he started working professionally. Carrey has bought and sold numerous houses, and as a result, he's amassed a relatively extensive real estate portfolio. His primary home in the L.A. neighborhood of Brentwood, which he bought in 1994 for $3.8 million, has been expanded upon considerably. Celebrity Net Worth reported that Carrey bought an adjacent one-acre lot for $1.7 million in 2000.
In addition to his L.A. estate, Carrey owned a seaside retreat in Malibu, which he purchased for $9.75 million in 2002. In 2011, he listed the property for $18 million, and two years later, he sold it for $13.4 million, per Today. Of course, Carrey doesn't spend all of his time in California. According to New York Magazine, in 2006, he was making monthly $45,000 payments to rent a 2,000-square foot apartment on the Upper West Side. Since then, he's looked into more permanent possibilities in the Big Apple. Celebrity Net Worth notes an apartment Carrey owns in New York City but doesn't go into detail.
In 2012, news broke that Carrey was looking to purchase an apartment the Daily Mail called "New York's number one Bachelor Pad." It's unclear if he pulled the trigger on that purchase, but if he did, he might have gotten it at a steal! It was initially listed at $25 million, but the asking price was later slashed to $19 million, per the Daily News.
Jim Carrey landed a Super Bowl ad
Like many celebrities, Jim Carrey's A-list status has afforded him numerous opportunities in the world of endorsements. Despite this, he hasn't worked with many companies over the years to film commercials or appear in print advertisements. That said, he's not averse to taking the time to film an ad, so long as it's humorous in tone, of course. One of his most well-known commercials saw him spoofing Matthew McConaughey's Lincoln advertisement on "Saturday Night Live." It's not technically a proper endorsement, but it entertained a lot of Carrey's fans.
While he doesn't take many jobs supporting companies, he has filmed a commercial or two in recent years. In 2022, Carrey reprised his role from "The Cable Guy" for a Verizon ad that aired during Super Bowl LVI. While Carrey's salary for filming the ad hasn't been made public, People reported that Verizon donated $1 million to the University of Southern California's Iovine and Young Center in relation to the ad. It's rare for the details of an endorsement deal to leak to the public.
That said, the New York Post reported in 2016 that actors who appear in commercials played during the Super Bowl don't walk away empty-handed. According to an advertising executive who spoke with the outlet, "It ranges from $500,000 to $2 million depending on the commercial and the celebrity." Since that report was published several years ago, Carrey might have been paid more than $2 million for his Verizon spot.
He's worked with numerous charities over the years
Jim Carrey's childhood was difficult due to the financial stresses put on his family. Perhaps because of this, he's become an incredibly generous philanthropist since becoming a highly paid celebrity. According to Look to the Stars, Carrey has supported several charities over the years with his time and money, including the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and many more.
He's also worked to help various causes, including a charity telethon and benefit concert called "America: A Tribute to Heroes," which supported victims of 9/11 and their families. Carrey donated $1 million of his own money to the cause, per ABC News. In 2007, he recorded a video for Aung San Suu Kyi, "The world's only imprisoned Nobel Prize recipient." He made the video to bring attention to Suu Kyi's plight, urging people to "join the Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma" in support of the cause.
Carrey also founded a charitable organization called the Better U Foundation. The BUF works to provide global food security "by supporting the System of Rice Intensification (SRI)," and its overarching goal "is to reduce methane and nitrous oxide" emissions to impact climate change. Carrey also co-founded the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment, which "leads, empowers and supports Rising Creative Artists in achieving their life and career aspirations." He's typically private about his charitable donations and doesn't publicize his involvement unless it helps to elevate a cause.
Jim Carrey has published a couple of books
Jim Carrey is one of the most talented actors working in Hollywood, but that doesn't mean he's limited to acting. In fact, he's diversified his talents into other areas, including writing. His first book, "How Roland Rolls," is a children's book that won a 2013 Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award. The book is about a wave who fears hitting the shore but realizes he's a part of the whole ocean. "How Roland Rolls" "shows humanity's interconnectedness through the metaphor of a wave in the ocean."
In 2020, Carrey changed his style a bit when he published "Memoirs and Misinformation: a novel," a fictionalized memoir of his life, which he co-wrote with Dana Vachon. Carrey described the book by saying, "None of this is real and all of it is true." The semi-autobiographical novel was critically acclaimed when it was released. It made its way onto the New York Times Best Sellers List under Fiction Print Hardcover in July 2020.
Unfortunately, the amount of money Carrey has made from writing has not been revealed to the public. Sapling notes that a children's book author can expect an advance of up to $10,000 for a single book, plus royalties of up to 7% on printed books and $0.25 for every dollar of e-book sales. As for "Memoirs and Misinformation," it's difficult to say how much he's made, but in 2015, Deadline reported that other successful comedians were paid from $3 million up to $10 million for their memoirs.
He's dabbled in art and sells his paintings
Jim Carrey has been artistic his whole life, but he's only been public about his love of painting since his mid-50s. He's been drawing and painting since he was a little kid, and as he's matured, he's used painting as a way to express his feelings. In recent years, much of his work has centered around politics and world events, with a particular focus on former U.S. President Donald Trump. His series on Trump includes 50 paintings, cartoons, and drawings lampooning the President, per The Wrap.
Carrey moved away from painting politics in January 2020, telling Yahoo! Entertainment that "I've decided you understand my message. I don't need to be steeped in it anymore." Carrey has spent his time painting as a way of relaxing and pursuing a passion that took a back seat to his acting career. While you might not think he's made any money painting, you can purchase one of his paintings online if you want to. They are available exclusively at Ocean Blue Galleries, which has locations in St. Petersburg and Florida. All of his artwork is signed and numbered, and while you can purchase anything that's still available, the prices aren't listed.
Carrey's extensive portfolio includes oversized paintings, sculptures, and drawings. He once created a painting for Ellen DeGeneres while appearing on her show. Additionally, he's discussed his love of art in a documentary short titled "Jim Carrey: I Needed Color," where he describes how painting became a central focus of his life.
Jim Carrey travels in style
Jim Carrey's life is a true rags-to-riches story. He told Oprah Winfrey that he once wrote a $10 million check to himself, which he would cash for "acting services rendered" by Thanksgiving, 1995. He did this as a "visualization technique." A few years after writing the check, he cashed it.
That moment was the first of many big paydays for Carrey, and like many celebrities with a huge net worth, he isn't afraid to spend his money on extravagant things. Around 2015, he purchased a Gulfstream V jet for an unspecified amount, though Luxury Space valued it at $59 million. He used the aircraft quite a bit after purchasing it, but he rented it out on a charter model for a staggering $8,000 per hour when he wasn't traveling in it. Carrey also employs a crew of two for the 16-seat aircraft.
Since he can't get around town riding a private jet, Carrey has put a few cars in his garage, many of which cost him a lot of money. Over the course of his professional career, Carrey has purchased and driven a 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG, which cost around $130,000, according to MotorTrend. He's also owned a Porsche Panamera, a McLaren, and a Tesla, per Hot Cars.