Actor and producer
Nicole Kidman
Base case$270M
Estimate confidence
★★★★★
3 out of 5
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Nicolas Cage Net Worth Estimate
Actor and producerNicolas Cage’s $40M base case is intentionally far below what a career-earnings shortcut would imply. His public record contains both large paychecks and hard evidence that taxes, leverage and distressed property sales destroyed a meaningful amount of capital. The evidence supports 2/5 estimate confidence.
Published estimateReviewed Sep 17, 2026
Research context
See what supports this page, how current it is, and where comparable or historical context is available.
- Evidence
- 2 retained sourcesReviewed through Sep 14, 2026
- Change history
- 1 tracked snapshotComparable tracking began Sep 18, 2026
- Comparison context
- 1 reviewed peer rankingPeer lists preserve the same base-case estimate and uncertainty range.
Current estimate
What we can support today
Base case
$40M
Bear case
$22M
Bull case
$70M
Estimate confidence
2 out of 5
Why this estimate
- Main wealth driver
- Modeled retained acting and production capital ($30M base case)
- Estimate confidence
- 2 out of 5
- Key evidence
- Forbes reported $38M of 12-month pay in 2008 and 2004 taxable income of roughly $17M.Sources[1]
- Biggest uncertainty
- How much tax or other debt remains today?
- Evidence reviewed through
- Sep 14, 2026
Base case is our central scenario. Bear and bull cases show how uncertainty around private holdings, retained proceeds, taxes and liabilities can move the estimate.
Wealth data for developers
Explore Nicolas Cage with the Wealth API
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Celebrity rankings
Explore this profile in context
Rankings use the current base-case estimate and show the wider bear-to-bull range on the full list.
Scenario composition
Where the estimated wealth comes from
Switch scenarios to see how the total and each component move together. The bars show each positive component's share of the estimated assets in that scenario, not audited holdings.
Bear scenario net worth$22MPositive estimated assets shown: $22M
Retained acting and production capital
$17M to $55M range$17M77%
Remaining property and private assets
$5M to $15M range$5M23%
Base scenario net worth$40MPositive estimated assets shown: $40M
Retained acting and production capital
$17M to $55M range$30M75%
Remaining property and private assets
$5M to $15M range$10M25%
Bull scenario net worth$70MPositive estimated assets shown: $70M
Retained acting and production capital
$17M to $55M range$55M79%
Remaining property and private assets
$5M to $15M range$15M21%
How Nicolas Cage Built a Fortune
Nicolas Cage’s fortune cannot be understood by adding up movie salaries alone because the public record also captures a period when substantial capital was lost. Forbes reported about $38M of 12-month pay in 2008 and roughly $17M of taxable income in 2004, confirming that Cage had genuine high-end earning power.
A second Forbes report makes the retention problem unusually concrete. By 2010, it reported more than $6M of back taxes alongside foreclosures and distressed property sales. Those events show why large historical income does not automatically translate into a similarly large present net worth.
The current picture is less visible. Public evidence does not provide a complete schedule of remaining debt, present property equity, investment assets or how much of more recent acting income Cage was able to rebuild and retain after the earlier balance-sheet stress.
The mix of strong earnings evidence and documented financial setbacks is too informative for the lowest confidence score, but current assets remain only loosely observed. That supports 2 out of 5 estimate confidence.
Sources[1][2]Observed assets and financial anchors
A reported salary, company sale or brand valuation is not automatically current personal wealth. We show the pieces that can be tied to retained evidence and keep historical flows separate.
No major component is directly observable as a precise current valueThis estimate is built from source-backed financial anchors and explicitly modeled scenario ranges rather than pretending a private balance sheet is directly observable.
Scenario balance sheet
Cage’s estimate starts with documented eight-figure earnings, then applies an unusually severe retention haircut because Forbes also documented back taxes, foreclosures and forced asset sales. Former homes and castles are not reconstructed as current assets.
| Component | Bear | Base | Bull |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modeled retained acting and production capitalSources[1] | $17M | $30M | $55M |
| Modeled remaining property and private assetsSources[2] | $5M | $10M | $15M |
| Estimated net worth | $22M | $40M | $70M |
Modeled component
Modeled retained acting and production capital
Forbes reported $38M of 12-month pay in 2008 and taxable income around $17M in 2004. Those figures establish substantial historical earning capacity, but they cannot be carried forward intact because later tax and liquidity problems were material.
Sources[1]Modeled component
Modeled remaining property and private assets
By 2010 Forbes reported more than $6M of back taxes and multiple distressed property outcomes, including foreclosures and a castle sale. The model therefore assigns only a modest present private-asset range rather than extrapolating from Cage’s former property collection.
Sources[2]Tracked estimates
Estimate history
We began retaining comparable estimate snapshots on Sep 18, 2026. Earlier Grizzly Bulls figures are not reconstructed unless a retained snapshot exists.
- Current tracked estimateBase case$40MBear to bull$22M to $70M
Estimate history tracking started with the published estimate already in place.
This is the first retained snapshot, so there is no earlier comparable Grizzly Bulls estimate to show yet.
What could move the estimate
- How much tax or other debt remains today?
- What current property and investment assets were rebuilt after the earlier liquidity crisis?
- How much recent acting income has been retained?
Wealth timeline
Tax Court settlement exposes income and expense scale
Forbes reported Cage’s 2004 taxable income and his return to the Celebrity 100 with $38M of estimated pay.
Sources[1]Tax and property stress becomes material
Forbes reported more than $6M of back taxes alongside foreclosures and distressed asset sales.
Sources[2]
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Sources
Numbered citations above link to the retained sources below. External net-worth headlines do not set our estimate.
- [1]ForbesReporting · Sep 5, 2008Nic Cage's Other Weekend Premiere: IRS Settlement
- [2]ForbesReporting · Jan 6, 2010Celebrity Recession: Who Lost It All In 2009
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