Goodbye Iron Man: What’s Robert Downey Jr.’s net worth after Marvel?
Can you imagine playing one role that would put you on the list of the highest-paid actors? Well, this happened to Robert Downey Jr. after Iron Man, leaving him an enormous net worth. Nonetheless, there are things money can’t buy off. Even though Robert Downey Jr. is a successful actor, producer, and singer, he’s perhaps equally known for his substance abuse issues.
Robert Downey Jr.’s career can be divided into two. The first is the early one in New York where he won a BAFTA in 1992 and was nominated for the Oscars & Golden Globes. The second one would be after his drug abuse scandals when nobody would hire him. It was thanks to Mel Gibson that Downey made it back into the cinematic industry.
After all, Downey Jr. made a strong comeback achieving several awards like his 2001 Golden Globe for Ally McBeal. Downey also started a musical career in 2004 with the release of his album The Futurist. Among his several talents and important roles, Robert Downey has a net worth of $300 million, but, what has he done with it?
Early life & drug abuse
Robert Downey Jr. was born in April 1965 in New York in a house of actors. His father was the cult filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. who was also an actor & writer. On the other side, his mother was Elsie Ann Downey, also an actress.
Sadly, Downey Sr. was addicted to drugs and allowed Robert Downey Jr. to try marijuana since he was six years old. According to a People Magazine article of 1996, drugs represented an emotional father & son bond. When there’re emotions & trauma, substance use can be highly addictive, growing up with an addicted father sounds like a formidable scenario.
He grew up with his family in Greenwich Village until his parents divorced in 1987 and moved to California with his father. Downey attended Santa Monica High School at the same time other current actors did, like Charlie Sheen & Rob Lowe. However, Downey dropped high school and moved to New York in 1982 to pursue an acting career.
Downey grew up acting on his father’s productions and there’s no doubt about him being an exceptional actor, however, there was a time when he became unhirable. According to sources, Downey became impossible to work with due to his drugs & alcohol misuse, his addictions even landed him in prison.
Net worth & career
Yet, with his substance abuse drama, Downey made himself a name as a young actor in the mid to late 80s and received compliments in his comeback. In 2008, he developed a prominent role in Tropic Thunder obtaining an Oscar nomination. A year later in 2009, he was also recognized for Sherlock Holmes when he obtained his Golden Globe.
Nevertheless, it was the Marvel productions that would take him to a big success from Iron Man (2008) to Avengers: Endgame (2019). Thanks to those movies, he became one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood. The sum of all his movies gives box office receipts of $14.4 billion, making him the second highest-grossing actor after Samuel L. Jackson.
Only for the first Iron Man, Downey was paid $500,000 and earned $10 million for Iron Man 2, and by the third Iron Man, he earned $70 million. Downey earned a total of $345.5 million only by playing Iron Man in the Marvel movies. Not bad for playing the same role.
But a big net worth must be spent right? It’s estimated for Downey to own $50 million dollars of Real Estate. He paid $13 million for a 7 acre Malibu estate, and he owns another Malibu house, as well as a beachfront home in Manhattan Beach.
Robert Downey Jr.’s story is not only one of economic success but definitely personal growth.
