Jim Carrey Net Worth

What is Jim Carrey's net worth and salary?

Jim Carrey is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer who has a net worth of $180 million. Jim Carrey was the most famous actor in the world for about a decade. The man could do no wrong, and every comedic project he touched spelled massive amounts of money for the studio lucky enough to snag him for a lead role. Over a two-decade period, Jim was regularly one of the highest-paid actors in the world. His base salary was consistently $20+ million for a single movie. He was the first actor to earn $20 million for a movie and has earned at least $300 million to date from film salaries and bonuses.

Jim Carrey had already established himself as a popular stand-up comedian in Canada when he caught the eye of Rodney Dangerfield in the late 70s.  After opening for Mr. Dangerfield on tour, he moved to Las Vegas and then California.  All the while, he continued to build a following for his incredible impressions and wacky sense of humor. In the early 80s, the television and film worlds came calling. After appearing in a series of low-budget films and starring in the short-lived series "The Duck Factory," he began to gain higher profile roles in such films as "Earth Girls Are Easy," "Once Bitten," and "Peggy Sue Got Married."

In the spring of 1990, he began appearing in the series, "In Living Color."  The sketch comedy show would introduce him to an even wider audience and bring a new level of fame.  In 1994, he parlayed this television popularity into the lead role in the massive hit film, "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."  For the next ten years, he would dominate the comedic film industry, appearing in a string of popular projects, including "The Mask," "Dumb and Dumber," "Liar Liar," and "Bruce Almighty," as well as a number of films that blurred the line between comedy and drama, including, "The Truman Show," "Man on the Moon," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Highest Paid Actor & Salary Per Movie

Jim Carrey's financial ascent was one of the most explosive in Hollywood history, quickly transforming him from a television sketch artist into the world's highest-paid comedic star. His career began with a consistent, though comparatively modest, income from the sketch series "In Living Color", where he earned $25,000 per episode.

He was paid just $350,000 for the first "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" movie in 1994. The film's massive commercial success instantly made him a guaranteed box-office draw. By the end of the same year, his fee had skyrocketed: he earned $540,000 for "The Mask", which went on to gross over $350 million worldwide, and an unprecedented $7 million for "Dumb & Dumber". This rapid rise was capped by a $15 million fee for the 1995 sequel, "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls".

The $20 Million Elite Club

In 1996, Jim Carrey achieved a landmark moment in Hollywood history by becoming the first actor in history to command a $20 million upfront base salary for a single film. This groundbreaking deal was for "The Cable Guy", with the fee consuming nearly half of the film's entire production budget. For context, earning $20 million in the mid-1990s is the equivalent of earning over $34 million per movie today.

Carrey went on to consistently command this historic $20 million base salary (plus bonuses and backend deals) for a number of major studio films:

• "The Cable Guy" (1996)
• "Liar Liar" (1997)
• "Me, Myself & Irene" (2000)
• "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000)

His success continued, with his base salary increasing to $25 million for "Bruce Almighty" (2003). For "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", his compensation was further sweetened with a lucrative percentage of merchandise sales. While he accepted a lower upfront fee for dramatic roles like "The Truman Show" ($12 million), his commercial power remained unmatched.

While he earned hundreds of millions from his fixed salaries, some of his largest paydays came from bold gambles on his own box-office power. For the 2008 film "Yes Man", Carrey agreed to no upfront salary, instead taking a massive 36.2% share of the film's profits (the "backend"). This strategic risk paid off handsomely, bringing his total earnings for that single film to between $35 million and $50 million, solidifying it as one of the largest single paychecks in film history.

Overall, Carrey's sustained commercial success resulted in enormous career compensation. Between 1994 and 2008 alone, he earned an estimated $200 million from film salaries and bonuses. His total film salaries and profit participation have likely earned him more than $300 million to date.

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Early Life

Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, on January 17, 1962. His early life was marked by financial instability. When Jim was 12, his father, Percy Carrey, an accountant, lost his job. The family subsequently faced a difficult period of near-homelessness, living out of a van and working as janitors and security guards overnight at a nearby factory to make ends meet. After a full day of school, a teenage Jim would frequently work a full eight-hour shift at the factory to help support his family.

Stand-up and Early Career

Always a natural comedian and impersonator (a talent he inherited from his father), Jim got his professional start doing stand-up in Toronto comedy clubs when he was just 15, with his father often driving him to the gigs. He eventually dropped out of high school at age 16 to pursue his dreams full-time. Carrey moved to Los Angeles, where his career got a significant boost when legendary comedian Rodney Dangerfield saw him perform at The Comedy Store in 1982 and signed him as his opening act.

In the mid-1980s, Carrey landed his first starring role in the horror-comedy film "Once Bitten" (1985), followed by minor roles in films like "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986) and "Earth Girls Are Easy" (1988). He also had a brief run as the lead in the short-lived 1984 TV sitcom "The Duck Factory", but true recognition remained elusive.

Blank Check Come True

According to a legendary story, at one point around 1985, an extremely broke and depressed Jim Carrey drove his beat-up Toyota Camry into the Hollywood Hills. Overlooking the city of Los Angeles, Jim wrote himself a check for $10 million "for acting services rendered." He post-dated it ten years later and kept the check in his wallet as a motivational talisman. Spoiler alert—his dream came true within those ten years. When Jim's father died in 1994, Jim slipped the now fulfilled check into his father's casket.

In Living Color

Carrey's first major taste of stardom came in 1990 when he was cast as a regular on the Wayans brothers' groundbreaking sketch comedy show "In Living Color" on the Fox network. As the only white cast member in the ensemble, Carrey stood out, wowing audiences with his unrestrained physical comedy and mastery of bizarre, rubber-faced characters, most famously the accident-prone Fire Marshal Bill. His work on the show demonstrated his unique physicality and comedic range, making him a recognized personality across America.

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Film Dominance

While Carrey remained on "In Living Color" until the show concluded in 1994, he leveraged his television fame into a historic movie career. The year 1994 cemented his transition to A-list movie star status with three consecutive box-office hits:

• "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective": This was his major movie debut as a leading man. Although initially panned by critics, the film was a smash hit with audiences, grossing over $100 million and making him a household name overnight.
• "The Mask": This visually inventive adaptation earned him his first Golden Globe nomination and demonstrated his ability to blend his "human cartoon" persona with groundbreaking special effects.
• "Dumb and Dumber": Co-starring Jeff Daniels, this road-trip comedy became a beloved classic and secured his dominance in the genre.

The $20 Million Benchmark

Carrey's explosive commercial success led to a revolutionary shift in Hollywood compensation. He became the first actor in history to command a $20 million upfront base salary for a single film, a feat he accomplished with 1996's dark comedy "The Cable Guy". This historic salary established him as the highest-paid entertainer of his era.

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for AFI)

Dramatic Acclaim and Critical Success

In the latter half of the 1990s, Carrey began to deliberately shift his focus to more complex roles, seeking critical respect beyond comedy. This era produced his most highly acclaimed and award-winning work:

• "The Truman Show" (1998): In a sharp departure from slapstick, Carrey starred in this poignant, darkly comedic drama about a man who discovers his entire life is a reality television show. The performance earned him his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.
• "Man on the Moon" (1999): He won his second consecutive Golden Globe for his intense, method-acting portrayal of legendary comedian Andy Kaufman, showcasing a deep, committed dramatic range.
• "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004): Carrey delivered a quiet, heartbreaking performance as Joel Barish, earning widespread critical praise, a BAFTA Award nomination, and his fifth Golden Globe nomination.

Later Career and Recent Work

Carrey continued to successfully balance his dramatic pursuits with large-scale comedic vehicles, including hits like "Liar, Liar", "Me, Myself, and Irene", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", and "Bruce Almighty". He also starred in the financially successful "Yes Man" (2008), where he famously took a large percentage of the film's profits rather than an upfront salary.

More recently, Carrey returned to the television screen in the Showtime tragicomedy series "Kidding" (2018–2020), which earned him his seventh Golden Globe nomination. On the big screen, he embraced a major villain role as the manic Dr. Ivo Robotnik in the family-friendly blockbusters "Sonic the Hedgehog" (2020) and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" (2022). The sequel proved his enduring star power by achieving the best domestic opening weekend of his entire career with a $72 million debut.

Personal Life

Jim Carrey has been married twice. He was married to Melissa Womer from 1987 to 1995. They have a daughter together named Jane Erin Carrey, who was a contestant on American Idol in 2012. In 1996, Jim married his Dumb & Dumber co-star Lauren Holly. The marriage lasted less than a year. Between 2005 and 2010, he dated model/actress Jenny McCarthy. Jim dated makeup artist Cathriona White from 2012 through 2015, when she was found dead from a drug overdose. Carrey then dated Ginger Gonzaga for less than a year in 2019.

Awards

During his career, Jim has won more than 40 major awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture for The Truman Show in 1999 and Man on the Moon in 2000. In 2006, Carrey received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. In 2013, he won the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award for his children's story, "How Roland Rolls."

Jim Carrey /Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images

Brentwood Estate

Jim owns a number of homes around the United States. His longtime primary residence has been a sprawling compound in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. He bought the first property in his compound in 1994 for $3.8 million (the same as around $6.6 million today). In 2000, he spent $1.7 million for the one-acre lot next door. Today, the property features a large guest house, swimming pool, and tennis court. Approximately 300 feet of fencing and hedges protect the two-acre compound, which features 13,000 square feet of living space. In February 2023, Jim listed his Brentwood estate for $28.9 million.

Other Properties:

• In 2002, he spent $9.75 million on a beachfront mansion in Malibu. He listed the home for sale in 2011 for $18 million. He finally found a buyer in 2013 for $13.4 million.
• Jim also owns an apartment in New York City.

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