Keanu Reeves' Net Worth Continues to Gain Speed
Keanu Reeves' net worth is around $390 million in 2024. Not bad for a man, abandoned by his father when a toddler, had learning problems due to dyslexia, was expelled from four schools in five years, and had anger issues as a child. The one thing he was good at as a youth was playing hockey. That sports activity became impossible after he suffered an injury during high school.
He stopped playing hockey, gave up his dream of becoming a professional player, and dropped out of high school. For most, this would have been the end. For Keanu, it was the beginning.
Early Years
Keanu was born on September 2, 1964, in Beirut Lebanon. When he was three years old, his dad left. His mom Patricia was a bit of a global wanderer. She married four times, moving around globally until the family finally settled done in Toronto, Ontario in Canada.
For his formative years, Keanu grew up in Canada. When he was nine years old, he began acting with a performance in the play Damn Yankees. After dropping out of school in Canada, he got a green card that allowed him to work in the USA. He went to live with one of his ex-step-dads in Los Angeles, who worked as a stage and television director.
Keanu Reeves Big Break
His ex-step-dad helped Keanu get parts in small theater productions and appearances in television commercials. Keanu also got a small guest part in the television sitcom Hangin’ In.
In 1986, he got a role in the movie called River’s Edge, which was controversial. Many call this film the darkest Generation X film of all time. The story is about a teen boy who rapes and kills a slightly younger teen girl. Then, over the next few days, shows the body to his friends who do not report the murder to the police. It is a coming of age film with a dark theme about the low value placed on the life of the murdered girl by the other teenagers.
Party Time, Excellent
The breakthrough role for Reeves came from playing the character of Ted “Theodore” Logan in film, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure released in 1989. Reeves’ character was the male equivalent of the stereotypical, blonde-haired woman who is super good-looking but dumb as a rock. Reeves also made the sequel that came out two years later in 1991 called Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and the third installment Bill & Ted Face the Music made in 2020, not yet released. While Reeves had fun making these films, he was annoyed that people thought he really was that stupid in real life. Even though Reeves dropped out of school, he spent the ensuing years self-educating by reading many books. He is quite intelligent.
After doing the Bill & Ted movies, he had a supporting role in Ron Howard’s film Parenthood. Then, in 1991, he was in the beefcake surfer movie Point Break with Patrick Swayze. Keanu Reeves' net worth improved as his salary to be in movies increased.
The Death Of River Phoenix
Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. Image Source: people.com
He started to show that he was developing acting skills when he co-starred with the late River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho. Gus Van Sant directed the film. The relationship between the characters played by Reeves and Phoenix in the film was a bromance that mirrored how they felt about each other in real life. When Phoenix died from an overdose on Halloween in 1991, in front of the Viper Club in Los Angeles, Reeves was devastated. Reeves cared deeply for his friend. He lost River so suddenly and brutally.
I Feel the Need For Speed
My investor group helped raise the money to produce the first movie called Speed. It starred Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Sandy was just starting her career as an actress at that time. The production budget was $23 million. We raised the money from individual investors who put in around $1 million each.
He Smells Nice
While the film was shooting, I hung out on the set with my friend Amanda who worked as the stand-in for Sandra Bullock. Amanda had a crush on Keanu. She told me he smells so nice. I asked her if she meant the cologne he was wearing. She told me that it was not cologne. It was the smell of his body, the pheromones that he emitted that turned her on.
Reeves is an enigma. He was asexual. He appeared not to be interested or sexually attracted to anyone. He mostly ignored everyone on the set. He was aloof but not impolite. He buried himself in reading books. He liked to learn about the Tao and other philosophies between takes. He had a healthy disdain for everything about Hollywood, was doing his work, and at the same time was not that excited about all that was going on.
When we got to the part in the shooting schedule where we needed to shoot the bus scenes for Speed, the film crew moved to an unused part of the Los Angeles International Airport. The dailies from those scenes were super exciting. We took some edits to show to Fox to see if we could get a distribution deal for the film.
We Made Money!
To our surprise, Fox offered to buy the film for $38 million and give us a little bit of any profits on the back-end as well. This is a “negative pick-up,” when the distribution company buys the rights for the film before its release. It happens very rarely at that level of budget.
I had the distinct pleasure of being able to tell our investors that they made money with their investment in the film before it even released. The investors were ecstatic and this launched my career in film financing. Thanks, Keanu. The film went on to gross over $350 million globally. It was too bad that Keanu did not have back-end participation because that would have vastly improved Keanu Reeves' net worth.
Thanks, Keanu!
Fox did a sequel called Speed 2: Cruise Control. Keanu turned down the role in the sequel. I did not bring in any investors either because both Keanu and I came to the same independent conclusion. The script for Speed 2 was terrible.
Sandra Bullock was in Speed 2. I adore her and she was still at the beginning of her career. As an investor group, we could turn down a film without repercussions. However, as an actor, Keanu’s position was different. Fox did not appreciate being turned down. This made it harder for Keanu to get good roles after that because Fox was spiteful.
Keanu was correct. Speed 2 had a production budget of $110 million, almost five times the $23 million we used to make the first one. The film was a major box office flop. It only grossed $150 million worldwide.
The rule of thumb is that a film has to do three times the production budget in gross box office proceeds to break-even. Speed 2 was a big money loser for Fox. I never got a chance to thank Keanu for turning it down because if he were in Speed 2, we would have invested in the film and lost a lot of money. Thanks again Keanu.
The Hollywood Calm Before the Storm
Keanu calls this period after he turned down Speed 2, the time he spent in Hollywood prison. In Hollywood, either everyone wants you or nobody wants you. One day you are super hot and the next day you are not.
Pucker Up
In Hollywood, everyone is in a hierarchy of ass-kissing. At the top of the food chain, are the big whale investors that come into town and lose, on the average, about $500 million each. They waste half a billion dollars making movies and then they go back to their other businesses with their tails between their legs.
Studio bosses kiss the big investors’ asses until they get the money. Then, they prefer never to see them again. Lew Wasserman, the head of Universal Studios once said to me, “We are happy to share our losses with anyone.” The creative types called the investors “the suits.” Everybody needs the money but after they get it they want the money types to go away and let the creativity (and wastefulness) take over.
The top of the chain is the studio head who acts all-powerful until one day when the Board fires him or her without warning. Below that, are the major producers and directors who are only as good as their last film. Next are the actors. They are hired-talent, considered disposable until they are consistent moneymakers. If their films make a lot of money, they go to the top of the pile to be pimped out by powerful, blood-sucking parasites, I mean, agents.
Then, there are the production crews that do well based on their networking skills to get jobs and the quality of their work. At the bottom of the pile are the writers who are sometimes paid, at most, $1 million for a script for a major hit film. Most are lucky to get $25,000 for an option on anything else they write. The vast majority of writers suffer abuse or just are ignored.
I have the distinct experience of being on the investors’ side and the writer’s side to see the extremely different treatment. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Keanu is in the middle. He did not go on the discard pile, just diminished for not behaving. After he turned down Speed 2, it took a long time to get back up to the top of the pile. During this time, he did Johnny Mnemonic (1995), A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Chain Reaction (1996), Feeling Minnesota (1996), and, the oh-so-forgettable, The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), which did $46,362 at the box office. None of these films did much to improve Keanu Reeves' net worth and his acting career was heading for the toilet.
Build Your Wealth Step By Step with the Help of the Wealthry Store.
The Devil Made Him Do It
In 1997, Keanu was in the film The Devil’s Advocate playing opposite Al Pacino (who played the Devil). I think this film is his best acting work and showed his maturity as an actor. His performance as an attorney who sells his soul to the devil is brilliant. The film did well and got him back into the limelight.
Matrix
Then came Matrix. The Matrix franchise is responsible for most of Keanu Reeves’ net worth. He got paid $15 million upfront per film. From his back-end participation in the franchise, he earned over $250 million. The Matrix films are my favorites. Keanu is so uber cool in them. He is amazing as the character Neo.
As far as I am concerned, he could have stopped acting in films after Matrix and I would be very satisfied. He continued to do films and is working on a new franchise of John Wick films as well as appearing in dozens of others. There are so many and he continues to extend his acting range.
Life Challenges
Emotional suffering has been the pattern of Reeves’ life as reported by Bright Vibes. He lost River. His wife Jennifer Syme broke up with him after she had a stillborn child and 18 months later died in a car accident. His sister got leukemia and barely survived.
He has all the fame and fortune, yet the stardom and Keanu Reeves’ net worth do not compare to the value of the people that he lost or got so sick in his life. He gave away 70% of his earnings from the Matrix franchise to fight leukemia and would give it all away if it could cure his sister.
“If you have been brutally broken but still have the courage to be gentle to other living beings, then you’re a badass with a heart of an angel.”
Conclusion
It is likely that Reeves does not care about accumulating more money. He has plenty and if he got more, he would just give it away. However, it is part of the Hollywood game to earn huge salaries. Actors who receive the highest pay create the perception of being the most desirable for casting in a film. They get the best roles.
He has a wonderful sense of humor about how silly all of the Hollywood stuff really is and you can see this attitude in his interview with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show when they discuss how his Hollywood agent wanted Keanu to change his name in the early part of his career. He could be Chuck Spadina or Templeton Page Taylor. Thankfully, they let him keep using his real name because the special thing Keanu has, is that he is a totally authentic kind person, who just happens also to be a famous movie actor.