American director, screenwriter, and producer Steven Spielberg has a $8 billion net worth and a $150 million yearly salary. The second-richest celebrity on the planet as of this writing is Steven Spielberg, who, behind his good friend and fellow director/producer George Lucas (worth $10 billion).
Steven frequently chooses to accept a relatively small upfront salary of $10 million for his own films in exchange for backend points on the gross revenue. In one such deal for the 1993 film “Jurassic Park,” Steven received a $250 million payout.
That is equivalent to about $360 million in today’s money. He received $75 million from the third film, which he did not even direct, and at least $150 million from the sequel.
For “Schindler’s List,” he famously refused to accept a salary, referring to any earnings as “blood money.” Instead, he ordered that all money owed to him forever be used to support the USC Shoah Foundation, which honors and remembers Holocaust survivors, in 1994.
