Jim Carrey's Net Worth In 2024 and How He Earned It With Record-Breaking Paychecks
Jim Carrey's net worth in 2024 is one of Hollywood's highest, and with good reason: In 1994, the rubber-faced comic actor was the only star ever to have three movies gross more than $100 million in a single year (Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber), and his star only continued to rise afterward.
Carrey's resumé is colorful and varied, with roles ranging from the hilariously idiotic (see above) to the heart-wrenching and moving (The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Man on the Moon). That variety and versatility is deliberate.
"For me, art is trying to take a mixture of pain and intelligence and create something that wasn't there before," he previously revealed to Parade. "There's something beautiful about taking a painful thing and making a painting out of it. I have some horrific paintings I've done, and some characters that I've done that I wasn't happy being in, but they were a part of me at the time and I needed to express it in a way that isn't, you know, pulling my pants down in the middle of an intersection. Not that I'm above that."
For a few years, Carrey took a breather from the entertainment industry, despite consistently being in high demand.
"I just didn't want to be in the business anymore," Carrey explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "I didn't like what was happening, the corporations taking over and all that. And maybe it's because I felt pulled toward a different type of creative outlet and I really liked the control of painting—of not having a committee in the way telling me what the idea must be to appeal to a four-quadrant whatever."
He told The Hollywood Reporter that he has no interest in pursuing fame, which played a role in his brief respite from acting after 2016. "There's a weightlessness to it," he said of notoriety. "You can dream about it all you want, but until you get it, you don't realize that it's really not a place that's very comfortable for very long."
That may all well play a role in why the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 star has floated the idea of retirement recently: He's more focused on being present than on leaving a legacy.
"I don't care if people remember my name. I want what I do to mean something now," he told Parade. "I care that the people I came in contact with maybe were a little bit freer or a little bit better or a little bit happier, and they did something for somebody, and it spiraled. We can each, in our lives, affect so many people. So that’s all I’m after. It’s a good life. A really good life."
Of course, it's easy to have a good life when you know you'll never have to worry about making ends meet. Find out Jim Carrey's net worth in 2024 and how he earned it.
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How did Jim Carrey become famous?
Thrown into poverty after his father lost his job when Carrey was just 12 years old, the star's comedy standup career began (with his parents' encouragement) when he was all of 15. Carrey once recalled to Barbara Walters that his father helped him write his act.
“My parents held my comedy up as something special—I was what was special about them in a way,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that his siblings were also supportive. Carrey's relationship with his father is largely what propelled him to success, and his dad didn't fight him even when he asked to drop out of high school to pursue comedy. “My dad was the guy who could just stand in the middle of a room and everybody would be wrapped around his finger. He was just this incredible human being.”
Still in his teens, Carrey moved to Los Angeles in 1981, where he performed standup more regularly as an impressionist, mimicking everyone from James Dean to Henry Fonda and beyond. He told Walters that he essentially manifested his acting career, driving to Mulholland Drive and telling himself over and over that he was a successful actor, with a check in his pocket for $10 million that he'd written to himself "for acting services rendered."
In the late 1980s, Carrey landed small roles in films including Earth Girls Are Easy (with Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum) and Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married (with Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage).
In 1990, he got his big break when he was the only white man cast on the sketch show In Living Color, where he debuted such iconic characters as Fire Marshall Bill.
He remained on the iconic sketch series until 1994, when he starred in two massively successful movies: The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
As for Carrey's $10 million check, he held onto it until he was able to cash it in 1995—but instead of doing that, he put it in his father's casket when he died to let his beloved dad know that he'd made it.
Related: Here Are Our 10 Favorite Jim Carrey Movies
What is Jim Carrey's net worth in 2024
Jim Carrey's net worth in 2024 is estimated at $180 million, and if you ask him, he's happy to leave it that way. He told Access Hollywood in April 2022 ahead of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, “I’m retiring. Yeah, probably. I’m being fairly serious." He added that he may consider more projects but, "It depends. If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break.”
Carrey, one of the wealthiest and highest-paid actors in the business, has recently taken to visual art as a medium that brings him peace and serves as a creative outlet. He explained, "I really like my quiet life and I really like putting paint on canvas and I really love my spiritual life and I feel like—and this is something you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists—I have enough. I’ve done enough. I am enough.”
How much does Jim Carrey make per movie?
In 2011, Carrey made Forbes' list of highest-paid actors, raking in a reported $20 million per movie at his peak. That said, his total take-home pay for every project likely varies by box office performance and demand. According to Business Insider, when adjusted for inflation, Carrey's groundbreaking $20 million salaries would each be worth more than $35 million today!
Despite his big bucks, Carrey has said he isn't necessarily motivated by fame or money. He's famously quoted as saying, "I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer."
Related: Comedian Bill Burr's Net Worth
How much was Jim Carrey paid for The Mask?
The Mask was an absolutely massive success, grossing $352 million on a $23 million budget. Released in 1994, the same year as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Carrey's payday was $450,000.
As far back as 1989, The Mask was initially pitched as a horror film to more closely follow the violent Dark Horse Comics on which it was based, exploring the themes of classic animation, anonymity and the corruption of absolute power. Instead, it was reworked as a "sssssssmokin'" PG-13 comedy thanks to Carrey's signature facial movements and voice for Stanley Ipkiss. It also served as a star vehicle for Cameron Diaz—who was scouted for the movie by chance when she walked out of a modeling agency.
Related: Jim Carrey Opens Up About Life as a Comedian, the Joys of Grandparenting and Streaking in Hawaii
How much did Jim Carrey get paid for his commercial?
Carrey reprised his Cable Guy persona for a Verizon Fios Super Bowl commercial in February 2022. It was his first commercial ever (not counting trailers for his own movies) and his salary isn't publicly known—but considering other stars have reportedly pocketed between $500,000 to more than $2 million for Super Bowl ads, it's safe to assume he made at least as much as he did for The Mask.
Verizon CCO and SVP Andrew McKechnie told AdWeek, "Hopefully, when the viewers see it, it will feel like a great story both from a cultural standpoint and, in terms of 25 years later, what The Cable Guy ultimately represents."
What is Jim Carrey's highest-paid movie?
Carrey's highest-paying film is actually one that a lot of people may have forgotten about. Released in 2008, Yes Man starred Carrey as a guy who literally couldn't say no alongside Bradley Cooper and Zooey Deschanel. While reviews were middling, like most Carrey-led comedies of the time, it made big bucks, not just for the studio, but also for the star himself.
According to Forbes, Carrey relinquished his upfront salary in exchange for partial ownership of the movie. It was a significant gamble, but one that paid off in a huge way: Yes Man grossed $223 million worldwide, netting the actor a whopping $30 million payday. At the time—and still today—it was one of the highest acting salaries for a single role in history.
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How much did Jim Carrey get paid for The Truman Show?
For his first foray into dramatic acting, Carrey accepted a whopping 40 percent pay cut from his usual sum. Carrey reportedly made $12 million for The Truman Show as opposed to his typical $20 million fee for comedies, and it was a successful showcasing of his talents. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe for his critically acclaimed portrayal of unwitting reality star Truman Burbank.
Of course, with a huge amount of TV being reality-based now, plus the advent of YouTube and social media, The Truman Show feels almost quaint and nostalgic. When asked about a potential sequel, Carrey told Collider, "I think The Truman Show is something that exists on a micro level now. It was kind of a story about that on a macro level. But now everybody has a subscriber channel. Everybody has their own little Truman Show world. There’s something to be had there. I often think, and am asked about, what would have happened to Truman when he goes outside the wall. It took me a while to realize that basically, he was alone out there, too, because everybody went back inside. They all wanted to be in the dome."