If you're not already familiar with Matt Damon and his multi-decade reign as one of the most famous actors in Hollywood, then I'm sorry but what size is the rock you've been living under!? Seriously, the star first got his start in acting in the late '80s, appearing in small roles in films such as Mystic Pizza and School Ties. But it was one 1997 film you maaaaaay or may not have heard of called Good Will Hunting that truly catapulted him and his forever BFF Ben Affleck to stardom. Let's take a dip into the actor's net worth real quick, shall we?
But first! A vid of me after reviewing the man's finances over the years:
Matt Damon's movie salaries are truly 🤯
And they've definitely increased over the years. His total $$$ for the breakout role in Good Will Hunting, for instance, was structured a little something like this, according to an interview the actor did on the Bill Simmons Podcast in 2018: “Ben and I had sold the script for $600,000 which we split and then I had a deal for Good Will Hunting if it went that I get $350,000.”
It took quite a bit of time to come to that deal simply because it was the duo's first real try at writing a script. “Good Will Hunting took us so long. We were, like, unemployed, broke guys. It took us forever to write that screenplay,” Matt recounted on The Tonight Show in October 2021. “I think we wrote thousands and thousands of pages. We didn’t really know what we were doing. And I think that kind of put us off writing again because we never thought we’d have the time.”
All of his and Ben's hard work paid off, because the film has grossed over $225 million since its release. Oh, and the actors also just so happened to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the project. Witness their sheer joy when they accept the award 🥺❤️:
Following the massive accomplishment that was Good Will Hunting, Matt went on to star in a tons of other H-I-G-H-L-Y successful films he helmed. I'm just gonna list them here along with how much they made so you can get a sense of the actor's payday for each:
- 1998: Saving Private Ryan (grossed $481.8 million worldwide on a $70 million budget.)
- 1999: The Talented Mr. Ripley (grossed $128.8 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.)
- 2001: Ocean’s Eleven (grossed $450.7 million worldwide on an $85 million budget, but!! According to Celebrity Net Worth, Matt was paid $5.5 million for his role in the film. Not to mention there were two other films in the trilogy he *also* got paid for—likely at the same rate, if not more.)
- 2006: The Departed (grossed $291.5 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.)
- 2013: Interstellar (grossed $701.7 million worldwide on a $165 million budget.)
- 2015: The Martian (grossed $630.6 million worldwide on a $108 million budget. Btw, Vanity Fair says Matt pocketed a whopping $25 million for the role.)
- 2019: Ford v Ferrari (grossed $225.5 million worldwide on a $97.6 million budget.)
Now it's obvious why the actor is considered to be one of Hollywood’s “most bankable stars,” huh?
His mega-franchises make megabucks
If you've taken a look at that list above and have already recovered from the astounding figures, you might be curious to know what our boy Matt was doing for a lot of the early aughts. Enter: the Bourne movies (which my boyfriend asked how I'd gone my whole life without watching about a month ago...but in all fairness, I had the same tone when I asked how he didn't know the intimate details of the Scandoval drama, so whatevs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
It turns out from 2002 to 2016, Matt was churning out a money-making franchise made up of five movies on top of the highly-successful solo films he was also working on. The Bourne project, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum, stars Matt as Jason Bourne, an assassin suffering from amnesia in the midst of trying to uncover his true identity. In total, all of the films grossed over $1.6 billion (with a “b!!”) worldwide, with the actor reportedly earning $10 million for the first iteration and then around $26 million for each subsequent film.
His more recent projects are still making him $$$
Matt is joining forces with Ben yet again for their movie Air, which is about the origin of the Air Jordan shoe. And not only does the project allow us to see these two together again more than ever (bless), but it further contributes to the actor's total net worth. Air reportedly cost between $70 and $80 million to produce *and* had an incredible debut, with its 5-day earnings outperforming original projections. And Matt is a producer on the film too, so that could def earn him more $$$.
His endorsem*nt game is *chef's kiss*
Though the majority of Matt's cash comes from making movies, he occasionally dabbles in endorsem*nt deals and brand partnerships. Case in point? His Nespresso ad, for which he reportedly made $3 million, and his work with TD Ameritrade. Not too shabby!
An aside...
To truly get a sense of the magnitude that some of these Hollywood actors get paid, it's actually a known fact that Matt turned down the lead role in James Cameron's Avatar, which went on to be one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Not only that, but the actor is reported to have said no to making a potential $250 million had he played Jake Sully in the blockbuster hit since he would have been entitled to 10 percent of the back-end profits.
“I will go down in history,” he confessed to Deadline in 2021. “You will never meet an actor who turned down more money.” Apparently Matt couldn't make it work because of his commitment to the Jason Bourne franchise, which to be fair did make him a sh*t ton of moolah. The actor also hilariously recalled telling John Krasinski about the decision, who allegedly responded by saying, “Nothing would be different in your life if you had done Avatar, except you and me would be having this conversation in space.” L-O-L.
So what is Matt Damon's net worth, in total?
That would be a cool $170 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Brb, punching the air right now because the only venture my childhood BFF and I could manage was selling lemonade on our front lawns.
