Pop icon Beyoncé has joined her husband Jay-Z along with Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Rihanna as the fifth musician on the Forbes list of global billionaires, the publication said today.
Her addition to the “three comma” club follows recent blockbuster tours, albums and related revenue. The Cowboy Carter Tour, which ran through last July, grossed more than $400 million in ticket sales, per Pollstar, and another $50 million in merchandise sold at the shows, according to Forbes estimates. Beyoncé did a special Cowboy Carter halftime show for Netflix’s first Christmas Day NFL game a year ago, collecting an estimated $50 million, the pub said.
It said The Renaissance World Tour took in nearly $600 million. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé grossed circa $44 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo.
The superstar’s business interests including full rights to her hugely valuable catalog are run through Parkwood Entertainment, which she launched in 2010.
Forbes said earlier this month that director James Cameron had joined another shortlist, of filmmakers who have reached billionaire status, which includes George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Tyler Perry.
Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way Of Water (2022) are two of the top three highest grossing films of all times. Juggernaut Avatar: Fire And Ash opened Dec. 19 and has passed $760 million globally.
Cameron, the helmer behind Titanic and the Terminator franchise, recently demurred when asked about his net worth. “I wish I was a billionaire,” he told Puck in a podcast interview. “The billionaire thing assumes certain deals that didn’t exist, one, and, two, that I’ve never spent a dime in 30 years.”
Other media and entertainment folks populating the Forbes real- time billionaires club include Rupert Murdoch and family, Donald Newhouse, Charlie Ergen, John Malone, David Geffen, Arnon Milchan, Barry Diller Oprah Wifrey and Jerry Seinfeld.
Headlining the list are tech titans Elon Musk, Larry Page, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, with Bernard Arnault and family, Jensen Huang, Warren Buffet and Steve Ballmer rounding out the top ten.
