With a net worth of $250 million, Bruce Willis is an American actor, producer, and “musician.”
Bruce has been one of Hollywood’s highest-paid leading males throughout his career. He has made hundreds of millions of dollars in film salaries alone between the late 1980s and the present.
Thanks to a large percentage of the film’s profits, his earnings from The Sixth Sense in 1999 exceeded $100 million.
He was paid $14 million upfront. That is, as of this writing, the second-highest sum ever paid to a single performer from a film.
Despite the fact that Keanu Reeves earned $156 million over TWO Matrix films, he still holds the top spot. As a result, Bruce’s salary for The Sixth Sense could be considered the greatest in Hollywood history.
Early Life
On March 19, 1955, Bruce Willis was born in the West German town of Idar-Oberstein. His father was an American serviceman and his mother was a bank cashier. Willis grew up in the New Jersey town of Penns Grove.
Bruce got a job as a security guard at a nuclear power plant after graduating from high school. He then became a driver for a DuPont factory, driving employees. Before opting to pursue acting full-time, he worked as a private investigator for a short time.
Bruce attended Montclair State University for drama but dropped out in his junior year to focus on acting full-time in New York City.
He mostly worked as a bartender in New York while auditioning for roles, however, he did appear as an extra in Paul Newman’s 1982 film The Verdict.
He relocated to Los Angeles in 1984 from New York. He got tiny parts on TV shows like Miami Vice and The Twilight Zone once he moved to California.
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Success
Bruce auditioned for and was cast as David Addison Jr. on Moonlighting in 1985. Between 1985 and 1989, Bruce, who starred opposite Cybill Shepherd, drew on his past expertise as a private detective.
Willis won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe for his performance on the show. Willis was so well-known that Seagram engaged him to advertise their Golden Wine Cooler in a series of commercials.
For the campaign, Willis received $7 million over two years. After accounting for inflation, that amounts to about $17 million today. After giving up alcohol in 1988, Willis canceled his contract with Seagrams.
Die Hard
Willis started obtaining film parts after being catapulted to the A-List. He made his acting debut in Die Hard in 1988. His standing as a television and cinema star was further reinforced by this performance.
For the first Die Hard, he received $5 million, $7.5 million for the second, $15 million for the third, and $25 million for the fourth.
Bruce has made at least $52 million on the Die Hard franchise, even before inflation is taken into account. It’s more like $70-80 million now that inflation is factored in.
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Other Notable Films
Look Who’s Talking featured Bruce’s voice acting skills in 1989. For his efforts, he received a monetary reward of $10 million. From the sequel, he made an extra $10 million.
Bruce took a wage cut in 1994, agreeing to star in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction for only $800,000. Bruce’s career was revitalized by the part, and he was re-established as a reliable A-list movie actor.
He received critical acclaim for his performance in 12 Monkeys in 1995, as well as popular acclaim for his performance in The Fifth Element the following year. Sin City, Red, Moonrise Kingdom, The Expendables 2, Looper, Unbreakable, Split, and Glass are among the other films that have been released.
Willis has received mixed reviews from critics, but he has also delivered a slew of movie office smashes.
The four Die Hard films have grossed over $1.1 billion in total worldwide. With $553 million in box office receipts, Armageddon was the most profitable film of 1998.
He also starred in The Sixth Sense, which grossed $673 million and is his highest-grossing film to date.
He has two Emmys and a Golden Globe one for his work on Moonlighting and another for a guest-starring appearance on Friends for Moonlighting.
Personal Life
In 1987, Willis married Demi Moore, who was also an actress. Before their divorce in 2000, the couple had three daughters: Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah Belle. Willis cut a $90 million settlement cheque when Bruce and Demi ended their relationship.
He married model Emma Heming in 2009, and they have two children. He and Heming share two daughters.
Throughout the years, Bruce and Demi have remained friends. He and she both attended the weddings of Ashton Kutcher and Hemingway.
Willis is also a musician, having released three rock albums to critical acclaim.
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Real Estate
Bruce Willis has amassed a collection of highly valuable properties all over the world throughout the course of his career.
Bruce and Demi Moore purchased a 7,000-square-foot penthouse in New York City’s San Remo skyscraper for $7 million in 1990.
They bought a two-bedroom apartment in the same building not long after that. In their divorce, Demi got this apartment. She listed it for $75 million in 2015. She fetched $45 million for the house in 2017.
In 2014, he paid $16.5 million for his former Beverly Hills property. He sold an $18 million penthouse in New York City in April 2018.
He listed a large estate in Turks and Caicos for $33 million in March of this year. The 7.4-acre estate has a 13,500-square-foot private compound with multiple guest cottages, a yoga studio, a children’s play structure, beach volleyball, and four pools. A video tour of this spectacular property may be seen here:
Bruce got $27 million from the founder of Goosehead Insurance, a multibillion-dollar insurance company, just a few months after advertising the above mansion for sale for $33 million. The property was advertised for $37.5 million by the new owners in February 2022.
Bruce bought a house in Brentwood, California for just under $10 million at the same time as the Turks and Caicos listing in 2019. He also offered a home in upstate New York for $13 million and sold one in Idaho for $5 million just a few months ago.
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Bruce Willis Salary Per Movie
Bruce’s largest paycheck has come from The Sixth Sense. He received a $14 million advance and a big percentage of the film’s gross receipts in exchange for his participation.
He made roughly $100 million in total from the film. Since the late 1980s, he’s been earning eight-figure wages.
He was paid $5 million for a film in 1988, which is almost $10 million now. He made $10 million for “Look Who’s Talking” a year later, which is equivalent to $20 million today. A year later, for the sequel, he received another $10 million.
In 1991, he received $14 million for “The Last Boy Scout,” $15 million for “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” in 1995, $16.5 million for “Last Man Standing” in 1996, and $14.8 million for “Armageddon” in 1998.
In 2000, he made roughly $55 million in total, primarily from two films, “The Kid” and “Unbreakable” $20 million each upfront.
In 2001 and 2002, he made $70 million and $46 million, respectively. He can easily earn a minimum of $20 million in a regular year with only a few hours of work.