Books Win in Dead Celebrities Rankings
2 0f 13 Top Dead Earners were writers
Highest Paid Dead Celebrities according to Forbes.1
#1- J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien-$500 million
When Swedish video game company Embracer announced its acquisition of Middle Earth Enterprises in August, they didn’t disclose the deal price, instead opting to share they’d spent $788 million on six acquisitions including Tolkien. But one clever hobbit told Forbes that Embracer spent at least $500 million for Middle Earth Enterprises, a number Embracer didn’t refute. After the deal closes, Embracer will share the shire with a multitude of other companies who own other pieces of Tolkien’s intellectual property, including HarperCollins, Amazon, Warner Brothers/New Line, and the Tolkien Estate, in what’s been described as the most complex IP rights split in history. 2
#8 Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)
$32 million.
The people of Whoville lived in a world the size of a speck of dust, Dr. Seuss once wrote, with Horton the elephant graciously carrying their speck on a fluffy dandelion. Those tiny Whos, alongside timeless characters including The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, and The Lorax generated over $16 million in book sales since last November, alongside a Netflix deal and merchandising.3
Other Dead High Earners
#2 Kobe Bryant #3 David Bowie #4 Elvis Presley #5 James Brown #6 Michael Jackson
#7 Leonard Cohen #9 Jeff Porcaro #10 Charles Schultz #11 Juan Gabriel
#12 John Lennon #13 George Harrison
The Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2022—A Writer Earns Half-A-Billion From The Great Beyond (forbes.com) Forbes October 31, 2022. This year's Dead Celebrity ranking includes pretax earnings from sales, streams, licensing deals and other sources between November 1, 2021 and October 30, 2022, as well as estate acquisitions made or announced during the same period. We compile our numbers with the help of data from Luminate, IMDbPro, NPD BookScan and interviews with industry insiders. Fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted.
Ibid.
Ibid.
It is interesting that all those high-earning celebrity writers are men. I would have thought that Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter or some other female writer might make the list.