Why Are Brad And Angie Worth So Much?
It’s their relationship.
The most famous couple on the planet, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, are not its most consistent box-office draws. But thanks to the profitability of their coupledom, they don’t need to be: They make money in endorsements and baby pictures and focus on the films that interest them.Since pairing off with Jolie on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2005, Pitt has ceased doing blockbuster schlock like Troy, working with a who’s who of auteur directors instead—Tarantino, Fincher, Malick, and the Coen brothers among them. Prior to Pitt, Jolie averaged two live-action movies a year. In 2011, she starred in zero, having spent the whole year working on In the Land of Blood and Honey, a small foreign-language movie about the Bosnian war that she wrote and directed.
The pair’s choosiness has been enabled, not hurt, by their ubiquity. The duo has appeared, alone and together, on the cover of People 22 times; before they were a couple, Pitt appeared eight times, and Jolie just once. They’re highly paid spokespeople for everything from Heineken to Louis Vuitton (whose recent deal with Jolie netted her a reported $10 million). And since getting together, they have seen their box-office grosses actually grow, meaning each can demand more money for blockbuster work when they do take it (a reported $20 million for Jolie to star in Salt, $10 million for Pitt to lead Inglourious Basterds) and practically donate their star power to smaller projects (Pitt reportedly took only $1 million for The Assassination of Jesse James, for instance). Their enduring appeal is a fairly direct refutation of the notion that the decline of the movie star can be pinned on actors’ overexposure.
Brangelina Portfolio: $270,000,000
Revenue Streams
Endorsements: Louis Vuitton, Heineken Japan, Tag Heuer, St. Johns, Shiseido skin care, Roots Coffee, Softbank cell phones, and others.
New Roles: Moneyball, Tree of Life.
Residuals: Troy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Salt, and movies dating back through 1987’s Less Than Zero (Pitt) and 1995’s Hackers (Jolie).
Baby Photos: Reportedly $14 million for photos of the twins, $4.1 million for photos of Shiloh, $2 million for postadoption pictures of Pax.
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The
Property Buffer: In 1996, Brad Pitt began buying up properties abutting
his 1915 Los Feliz home, over time assembling a security ring of
properties into a 1.8-acre "estate."
(Photo: © 2012 Google)
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5769 Briarcliff Road,
5618 Briarcliff Road
5742 Valley Oak Drive,
5750 Valley Oak Drive - R. Malchar
BergProperties.com
In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Pitt’s latest purchase, which like some other property of his was made through his Mondo Bongo Trust (he also owns other properties in his Briarcliff Trust and his Blaircliff Trust). Records show that Pitt purchased the property on August 6 from the estate of the late Anne Tyler Sherman. The deal was recorded on August 11.
Built in 1920, the two-bedroom, former Sherman house — whose property is shaped like a key — sits on a 0.25-acre (10,759-square-foot) lot in the Oaks area of Los Feliz. It helps Pitt round out his compound and means that Brad now owns close to 2 full acres in the Oaks.
In fact, we had wondered out loud in a September 2008 post why Pitt had never purchased this critical keystone parcel.
However, when this property became available, it first was listed for a whopping $2,000,000 and later was reduced to $1,495,000, as Curbed LA’s guru Marissa Gluck had noticed in June 2009 (without realizing that Pitt’s compound surrounded it). Features in the house (we were unable to find listing photos) include two baths, a stone fireplace, a huge main room, a bonus room, and “a bar area and a secret cave,” according to the MLS. In addition, the house was advertised as being an estate sale and therefore in need of TLC. Clearly, Brad and Angelina drove some kind of a bargain, to be able to pick the house up for close to half of its original listing price — and, almost $400,000 below its final asking price.
Pitt’s other properties on his compound are as follows:
–The compound’s historically significant, five-bedroom, 5,760-square-foot main Craftsman-style house, which was built in 1915 and which Pitt purchased in 1994 for $1,700,000. That house sits on nearly an acre (a 43,268-square-foot lot), according to public records. Pitt appears to have recently expanded the house, which public records previously had said measured 5,338 square feet.
–Another adjoining 1,653-square-foot house on a small, 0.13-acre (5,606-square-foot) lot, which Pitt purchased in 1998 for $475,000.
–An adjoining 2,454-square-foot house on a 0.29-acre (12,458-square-foot) lot, which Pitt purchased in 1996 for $380,000; as part of the 1996 transaction, Pitt also purchased an adjoining, 0.03-acre (1,307-square-foot) strip of vacant land that he also continues to own.
–An adjoining 1,534-square-foot house on a 0.15-acre (6,530-square-foot) lot, which Pitt purchased in mid-2008 for $1,287,500.
Putting all these parcels together, we see that Pitt now as under his own personal control 79,928 square feet of contiguous land in the Oaks (across six separate parcels!), or more than 1.8 acres of land. In addition, as we noted in September 2008, Pitt, who also not long ago won approval to add a guardhouse to his compound, sold another adjoining 3,141-square-foot house on a 0.30-acre (12,972-square-foot) lot in October 2003 for $740,000 to Richard “Richie” Malchar and Rebecca Malchar, according to public records. Richie Malchar has been identified in various news reports over the years as being Pitt’s security chief (and he has his name on the deeds of many of Pitt’s properties as his money manager, as does money manager Cynthia Pett). So in many regards, Malchar’s house and parcel could be included as part of Pitt’s compound as well. Pitt also sold a 2,219-square-foot house on a 0.30-acre (13,190-square-foot), uncontiguous tract at 5720 Valley Oak Drive in 2002 for an undisclosed price (north of $1 million, though).
Also, tallying everything up, we see that Pitt has spent $4,933,500 in assembling this compound, or close to $5 million. It’s obviously worth a lot more than that now, though, since some of those purchase prices were from long ago.
We have written many times about Pitt’s other properties around the country (and world).
R. Kelly built a twelve-foot wrought-iron-and-concrete fence around his estate. Ellen DeGeneres spent $5.5 million on a house that had sight lines into her backyard. These are the lengths celebrities go for a taste of anonymity in a business that ignores those who want to be noticed and incessantly hounds those who want to be left alone. “They’re just looking for privacy,” says Martin Genis, a Hollywood real-estate agent with many celebrity clients. That leaves stars with two choices: Find a secluded home that provides cover from what Genis calls the “lookie-loos” or move into a place like the Beverly Park, an exclusive, gated community where there’s a decent chance your neighbor is more famous than you are. Of course, you could always just move to a private island.
Security Expenditures
$500K: Armed security guard on duty 24 hours
$30K: Security-camera setup for 30 cameras
$25K: At-home nerve center for cameras
$10K: GPS device hardwired into cars
$5K: Shatterproof coating on windows
$820: Setting up LLC to keep purchases secret
The price—and surprising returns.
Mel Gibson’s Mago Island
Cost: $15M in 2005
Cost: $360K in 1978
And there can be income: Before a fire last August, Branson rented out his island for $54K a night; Mick Jagger’s six-bedroom beach house in Mustique is relatively cheap: $18K to $22K a week.
How Much Does an A-list Actor Make ... and Spend?
By Claude Brodesser-Akner
This post comes from this week's special issue of New York Magazine, which breaks down all the windfalls, paydays and freebies of the celebrity economy.
How Much Do Actors Make at Their Actual Jobs?
The increasingly byzantine world of Hollywood contracts.
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(Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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These days, financial ruin is never more than a few bombs away, so studios are asking talent to share in the risk. Blockbuster advances have faded into Hollywood memory—Jim Carrey, famous in the nineties for his $20 million price tag, has recently been known to defer upfront payment—and now stars are being asked to wait until their movies break even before collecting a share of the receipts. That means two things: Names like Cameron Diaz—who slashed her upfront salary on last summer’s Bad Teacher in exchange for a bigger piece of its post-recoupment box office, and is understood to have made $28 million—are betting on films rather than the reverse. And actors are at their most valuable in sequels to hits, basking in the light of franchises more than radiating their own star power. This is why Disney paid Johnny Depp a reported $350 million for the four Pirates of the Caribbean films, but declined to green-light his upcoming Lone Ranger movie until its $250 million budget was trimmed and Depp agreed to a more modest deal. All of which is to say that Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner—the stars of the Twilight movies, who each made $25 million plus 7.5 percent of the grosses for the series’ two-part finale—might want to consider opening savings accounts. Especially if they ever want to do anything other than Twilight.
... And how much on their breakdowns?
A profit-and-loss statement of Charlie Sheen’s meltdown of 2011 has him $8 million in the black: Experts estimate that he banked at least $7 million from ticket sales and merchandising from his “Torpedo of Truth” tour, and that he also made around $1 million in Twitter endorsements. (It’s believed he recouped his $25 million of his salary for Two and a Half Men and that he still holds a stake in its syndication deal.)
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Clockwise from top left: Gwyneth's Moses; the Pitt twins; Madonna's children; Suri Cruise.
(Photo:
Splash News (Jolie-Pitt twins and nannies, Paltrow child and nanny);
Elder Ordonez/INF Photo (Madonna's children and nanny; Suri Cruise and
nanny))
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Expenses:
$70K–$130K
For each nanny—many stars double up. They pay more for English accents and graduate degrees. And discretion will cost you, too.
$95K
Tutor for Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s 5-year-old in Latin, Greek, sailing, and philosophy.
$600K
Part of the pampering arms race: a solid-gold rocking horse for Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Blue Ivy.
$100K
Annual cost of a 6-year-old’s stylist. After all, the kid’s look complements the star’s.
Gains:
$11M
For baby pictures (if you’re Brad and Angelina, anyway).
$8M
The net worth of child star Jaden Smith. Shouldn’t a celebrity’s kid learn to foot some bills?
At Sundance last week, Emma Roberts and William
H. Macy walked out of the Gateway Center with leather jackets retailing
between $595 and $695. Others got gift certificates for Apple TVs and
iPads. Mary J. Blige picked up a $250 puffy jacket from Sean John while
Andie MacDowell grabbed herself $200 Matt Bernson booties.
This is, actually, normal: On average, a regular red-carpet
walker will receive about $100,000 in free goods and services annually,
some in all-gratis pop-up shops and some unasked-for in the mail. The
No. 1 freebie is apparel, from brands like Calvin Klein, Burberry, and
John Varvatos. (Louis Vuitton is an exception: They won’t ever gift or
even discount.) Then, consumer electronics: laptops and flat-screens.
Celebs can afford to buy a new car every season but are often given free
long-term leases from manufacturers like General Motors and Audi.The minute any celebrity has a baby, she is targeted by diaper companies and stroller manufacturers. And it doesn’t stop when the kids start walking: When Tom Cruise threw a 17th-birthday party for his son Connor at the Staples Center, the event was sponsored, and Connor was showered with gifts, including cars. Even vacations get paid for. Resorts like the One & Only chain and Atlantis in the Bahamas will foot the bill for a celeb and entourage. At the Golden Globes, Air Pacific handed presenters like Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal two round-trip tickets to Fiji, as well as accommodations at a five-star resort. Total value: around $15,000.
What Does It Cost to Look 19 When You’re...
Two plastic surgeons to the stars budget a lifetime of upkeep.
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(Photo: Michelle Feffer/New York Magazine)
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Acne microdermabrasion: $1,500
Facial-hair laser removal: $1,500
Botox for crow’s feet and frown lines: $1,000
Cool-fractional-laser resurfacing for sun damage: $5,000
Dermal fillers for lips: $1,000
Dermal fillers for dark circles under eyes: $2,000
Dermal fillers for flat cheeks: $3,000
Laser hair removal (non-annual): $3,000
Ultrasound cellulite therapy: $1,000
Stretch-mark removal (non-annual): $3,000
Rhinoplasty (non-annual): $12,000
Breast augmentation (non-annual): $10,000
Melasma lasering (non-annual): $5,000
Cost: $49,000
Age 35
Large-pore dermabrasion: $3,000
Lip-line filler: $1,500
Frown-line, forehead-line removal: $1,500
Eye lasering (non-annual): $2,500
Semi-permanent derma-fillers for cheeks: $4,500
Neck fillers (non-annual): $3,000
Liposuction (non-annual): $6,000
Tummy tuck (non-annual): $12,000
Breast lift (non-annual): $10,000
Cellulite removal: $2,000
Stretch-mark removal: $3,000
Body laser treatment for saggy skin: $2,000
Cost: $51,000
Age 45
Microdermabrasion facials: $3,000
Fractional lasering for discoloration (non-annual): $5,000
Dermal fillers for lip lines: $4,500
Dermal fillers for frown lines: $1,500
Laser skin resurfacing for eyes (non-annual): $3,500
Fractional resurfacing for sagging skin (non-annual): $8,500
Dermal fillers for sagging cheeks, neck, and necklines (non-annual): $9,000
Ultrasound cellulite therapy: $2,000
Mini face-lift (non-annual): $8,500
Redo breast implants from twenties (non-annual): $10,000
Cost: $55,000
Age 55
Microdermabrasion: $1,500
Fractional lasering for skin discoloration (non-annual): $5,000
Lip- and nose-line fillers: $4,500
Frown-line fillers: $1,500
Laser resurfacing for loss of elasticity (non-annual): $8,500
Ultrasound cellulite therapy: $2,000
Cheek derma-fillers: $4,000
Body laser treatment for sagging skin: $2,000
Face and neck lift (non-annual): $30,000
Eyelid lift: $7,500
Cost: $66,500
Four-decade total: $856,500
