Val Kilmer's Net Worth Opens The Doors
Val Kilmer Foto: Mark Humphrey/AP
If you've never seen the movie "The Doors," it's worth watching simply for the virtuoso performance of Val Kilmer alone. Kilmer, who already has an uncanny resemblance to singer Jim Morrison, gives an almost frighteningly realistic portrayal of the tormented, genius songwriter. It was a standout moment in a career that included heady peaks and some pretty extreme lows. Though not his highest-earning movie, it was likely his artistic peak as an actor.
It also highlights an interesting facet of Kilmer's career as an actor: as a classically trained actor, he was consistently pushed to express his raw talent on stage and in more serious film roles, like "The Doors" and "Tombstone." However, some of his highest-earning roles were in action films like "Top Gun" and "Batman Forever." This dichotomy defined his career in many ways.
It's this unique diversity in roles that makes exploring Val Kilmer's net worth such a fascinating subject. He's been a part of some of the best movies of all time but has also appeared in films that bombed at the box office and with critics. Thankfully, Kilmer has aged gracefully in his later years and has a fantastic net worth that should last him many years and keep him financially solvent.
Val's Early Life Was Marked By Tragedy
Val Kilmer didn't exactly come from a humble background: he was a Los Angeles native and the son of a successful real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor! However, Kilmer experienced tragedy at a young age when his parents divorced when he was just eight years old. This experience had a profound effect on the young Kilmer and affected his emotional life for many years: for much of his youth, he was an avid ladies man who jumped from woman to woman.
Even worse, Kilmer experienced an almost unbelievable emotional hit when his younger brother, Wesley, drowned in a jacuzzi when he was just 15. Wesley was an epileptic and experienced a seizure while in the jacuzzi that forced him underwater when no one was there to help him. Val and Wesley were best friends and compatriots growing up and even made home movies and plays together: both were budding artists, writers, and artists who showed precocious talent even at a young age.
At only 17, He Attends The Juilliard School
The Juilliard School is one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the world.
In fact, Val was so successful and talented as an actor that he was accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School for Drama at just 17: at the time, he was the youngest actor to ever get accepted into the school! Here, Kilmer fell in love with both writing and acting and honed his theater chops successfully over the years. Interestingly, the handsome and popular Kilmer was not interested in Hollywood roles at first and mostly stuck to drama.
That said, Kilmer was not a fool: he knew that film was where actors made good money. Only a handful of theater actors would make a lot of money, and Kilmer, while talented, was also coming of age in the 80s: an age where making the most money possible was the key drive for most people. As a result, he eventually ended up heading to Hollywood, where his raw talent and good looks would eventually earn him a major career.
Val Kilmer's Net Worth: An Estimate
It's always tricky to gauge an actor's net worth, especially when they've been involved in the industry as long as Val Kilmer. Furthermore, Kilmer has not only made money from acting but from book deals, playwriting, and real estate deals. However, most estimates believe that Kilmer is worth about $10 million in 2024, which is a staggering amount of money. It's far more than Kilmer's idol, Jim Morrison, ever earned.
That said, Kilmer has made even more than $10 million in his career: he typically makes between $500,000 to $10 million per movie, depending on the role. It's likely that Kilmer has made many more millions than his current worth. Like many young actors, Kilmer spent a lot of money in his successful early days and even developed a reputation for being difficult or even arrogant due to his success and training at Juilliard.
That said, Kilmer has settled down a lot in recent years and has mostly consolidated his earnings and focused on his family and friends. Tragically, Kilmer's acting career was heavily impacted by a health condition that essentially forced him into semi-retirement. Before discussing this issue, let's take a look at Kilmer's long and winding career after Juilliard to learn more about how he's made his money in Hollywood.
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Early Success in Acting
After finishing his studies at Juilliard, Val Kilmer mostly acted on stage and even turned down roles in movies due to theatrical commitments. For example, Francis Ford Coppola desperately wanted Kilmer for his film “The Outsiders,” but Val was engaged in a play at the time and couldn’t join the movie. During this time, he also wrote plays like “How It All Began” and even performed in off-Broadway productions with Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.
Furthermore, Kilmer also published a collection of poems entitled “My Eden After Burns,” which is now one of the rarest publications in the world of Hollywood mementos. Never reprinted (mostly due to Kilmer’s embarrassment), the collection rarely shows up and often costs hundreds of dollars in auctions. While drama and writing were his primary passions, Kilmer had to pay the bills and appeared in a handful of commercials and instructional videos during this period.
His First Film Appearances: Not Quite What He Expected
Val Kilmer as ‘Iceman’ in Top Gun (1986).
Though Kilmer had mostly performed in serious dramatic roles as an actor, he had a naturally strong sense of humor. Perhaps that’s why his first few film roles were in the comedy films “Top Secret!” and “Real Genius.” Though these films have their fans, they weren’t huge successes. They were also not quite how Kilmer wanted to make his name in Hollywood. But he was pragmatic: he knew that simply getting a starring role in any film was the right step.
So, while these films weren’t major box office successes, they obviously made an impression. Clearly, Kilmer’s obvious talent and good looks caught the attention of filmmakers even in these rather light and fluffy films. Director Tony Scott obviously noticed Kilmer: he picked the young actor to star alongside rising actor Tom Cruise in one of the biggest and most surprising success stories of the 1980s: “Top Gun.”
Top Gun: A Major Turning Point
On the surface, “Top Gun” didn’t appear all that promising in 1985. It was a romantic action film with relatively unknown actors that seemed more like a B movie than a major success. However, when the movie was released in 1986, it made over $346 million worldwide. Its combination of quotable dialogue, edge-of-your-seat action, and romantic action gave it a very broad appeal that pushed both Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer into the stratosphere as actors.
And while Cruise was the obvious star and center of the movie, Kilmer stole the movie as the arrogant Iceman. Throughout the film, Kilmer swaggered, taunted Cruise, engaged in one-up-manship, and arguably out-acted the talented Cruise. Without Kilmer’s semi-antagonistic role, the film arguably would not have been anywhere near the same success.
Further Success As an Actor
After “Top Gun,” Cruise and Kilmer found their careers taking off like jets! Kilmer found himself acting on television shows like “The Murders in Rue Morgue,” as well as films like “Billy the Kid” and “Kill Me Again.” In between these movies, Kilmer would return to theater when he could, including an impressive portrayal of Hamlet at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival that won acclaim from even the toughest Shakespeare critics.
Batman Forever (1995) where Val Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne.
On the back of “Top Gun,” Kilmer was also in heavy demand as an action-based actor and even appeared in romance films: his good looks made him a desirable leading man in just about any genre. Kilmer also balanced these somewhat “fluffy” or non-serious roles with more critically admired performances. We already mentioned his amazing portrayal of Jim Morrison in “The Doors” in the introduction. However, his roles in “Tombstone” and “Heat” also earned acclaim.
Ironically, it wasn’t these still-admired performances that likely earned him the most money. “Batman Forever,” the sequel to Tim Burton’s critically admired and financially successful Batman films, brought Kilmer into the lead role in one of the most popular film franchises of the time. Not exactly a critical success, it made over $336 million globally.
For his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Kilmer earned about $6 million, which was one of his biggest paychecks of the time. Furthermore, while the film was critically laughed off as campy silliness, critics lauded Kilmer’s portrayal of Batman. In fact, Batman creator Bob Kane called Val the most accurate portrayal of the character. In spite of this, Kilmer never returned to the role.
Declining Fortunes and His Voice Loss
After “Batman Forever,” Kilmer’s reputation started to decline. He was still a great actor, but he was known to be a difficult actor. He’d started becoming arrogant and even lazy, as well as someone who enjoyed drinking and smoking marijuana on the set. These issues came to a head in 1996 when he appeared in “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” a film so notoriously bad that a documentary was produced about its dysfunctional production.
After this bomb, Kilmer appeared in movies like “The Saint,” as well as voice acting in animation films like “The Prince of Egypt.” After the massive failure of the film “The Red Planet,” he appeared in independent films and had supporting roles in “Spartan” and “Alexander.” While he acted well in them, they weren’t successes, and his star waned as he aged. However, the worst was yet to come for Kilmer’s career.
In 2015, Kilmer needed two tracheotomies and chemotherapy to fight throat cancer. While he successfully recovered, he lost his voice and has appeared in only a few films since.
He was the subject of the documentary “Val”, which was a huge success at Cannes 2021. He also appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick” after working with a team to create an artificial voice simulator that helped him reprise his role as Iceman in a surprisingly heartfelt reunion with Cruise.
Real Estate Deals
Much of Kilmer’s net worth likely comes from the sale of nearly all of his 6,000-acre New Mexico ranch in the early 2000s. Kilmer sold most of it for about $18 million after his career declined, and he spent less time at the ranch. Though he still owns a small portion of the ranch, he mostly splits his time between it and a rented home in Los Angeles.
Philanthropy: How Kilmer Gives Back
While Kilmer’s reputation for difficulty at the peak of his career was legendary, his philanthropy is less discussed. That’s likely because Kilmer rarely advertised his philanthropic goals, preferring to give back to his community in subtle ways without drawing attention to himself. His giving nature reveals a good heart, one that goes beyond his difficult personality at the peak of his career. It also highlights the complexity of most people: no one, after all, is perfect.
For example, Kilmer is associated with the organizations V-Day, First Star, Global Green, and LIFEbeat. These groups help support many unique causes and have helped the lives of many people over the years. Furthermore, Kilmer is known to support causes like human rights, conservation, disaster relief, AIDS support, human trafficking, women’s rights, water safety, and much more. The fact that he’s quietly supported these causes over the years shows his sincerity in helping others.
Kilmer’s Turnaround Is an Inspiration to Aspiring Actors
While it’s clear that Val Kilmer’s life wasn’t always sunny and that his often brash personality rubbed people the wrong way, he remains one of the most respected actors in Hollywood history. Could he have been more successful in serious roles if he’d pushed himself harder? Perhaps. But it’s clear that Val Kilmer’s net worth would likely be far lower if he’d stuck to the stage or more dramatic films. Before being too harsh on Kilmer for chasing money over art, ask yourself a few questions.
Would you have chosen art over money when big paychecks started coming your way? Could you have stayed humble in the face of such overwhelming success? Remember: Kilmer was not only the youngest person accepted to Juilliard at the time but was just 25 when “Top Gun” was a major hit. That’s a lot of fame and fortune at a young age, and few people could likely resist giving into it and changing. However, it appears that Kilmer’s struggles with cancer have humbled him significantly.
Final Thoughts
Simply put, Kilmer’s career and net worth are further examples of the impact of money on young people. During his peak, Kilmer was spending nearly as much money as he was making and, eventually, had to pull back his spending to avoid losing everything. Kilmer’s ability to retain a significant net worth and become a more humble and grounded actor is a reminder that it’s never too late to become a better person and avoid falling into dangerous pitfalls as a person.
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