Michael Jackson Highest Paid Dead Celebrity Forbes List 2025
For humans, death is the end of life, but would you believe that even decades after leaving the world, some stars are earning more than the living superstars of today? According to the latest report of Forbes, Michael Jackson’s influence continues even in 2025. When it comes to wealth and fame, Michael Jackson’s name still shines at the top, even though he is no longer with us.
MJ has no match in terms of earnings
It has been 15 years since Michael Jackson left the world, but the pace of his estate’s earnings is not slowing down. According to the latest data released by Forbes, in the last 12 months, Michael Jackson’s estate has earned a huge income of about $ 105 million. With this figure, he has become the highest earning late celebrity of 2025.
Michael Jackson has changed all the rules
In the year 2001, Forbes had released such a list for the first time. At that time, the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ Elvis Presley had complete control over this list. In the last 25 years, the estate of Elvis Presley has earned a total of 1.2 billion dollars, which is a huge amount in itself.
But, Michael Jackson has changed the rules of this game. Since his death in 2009, the total income of his estate has been estimated at around $3.5 billion. This gap is so big that a famous estate lawyer had to say that in the race for earnings, Michael Jackson is first, then there is a huge gap, and after that come the rest. Today Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, J.R.R. He remains at the top of this list along with stalwarts like Tolkien and Charles Schulz.
Where has Jackson invested
The reason behind Michael Jackson’s record-breaking earnings is not just his music or dance, but also his amazing business sense. He had made some smart investments during his career, which are laying golden eggs today. In 1985, he wisely bought the ATV music catalog for $47.5 million. This catalog included the rights to approximately 4,000 songs written by the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
This investment proved to be the biggest jackpot in 2016, when Jackson’s estate received approximately $750 million by selling its stake in the catalog to Sony. Additionally, the estate raised $600 million in 2024 by selling its publishing and master recordings stake. Although Jackson’s mother Katherine Jackson opposed the deal, it had no impact on earnings figures.