wikipediaMichael Jackson was a legendary money maker in entertainment industry, and it seems that his dead couldn’t stop him from earning big bucks. Started his music career at tender age as conga and tambourine player for Jackson Brothers, he spent 42 years of his life for music, gained so much money during his lifetime that so hard to calculate its exact number. He has passed away on June 25th 2009, yet his legacy still earning big cash, much bigger than our annual salary.
Yesterday Forbes Magazine has named Michael Jackson as the highest earning dead celebrity of the past year. They estimated that the late ‘King of Pop’ has earned $ 170 million from sales of his music and his stakes in the Sony/ATV catalog. He also earn from Cirque du Soleil show ‘Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour’ which uses late Michael Jackson’s song. It must be noted that Michael Jackson’s earning has plunked significantly from last year, when he earned more than $ 275 million, but still nobody could beat the ‘Beat It’ singer from his position.
Cirque du Soleil also helped other late musicians such as Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and George Harrison to be on the list. Cirque du Soleil’s show in Las Vegas, which uses their songs, gave big contribution for their annual postmortem income as well.
Full list of Forbes Top Earning Dead Celebrities (note that not all of them came from music industry):
1. Michael Jackson
2. Elvis Presley
3. Marilyn Monroe
4. Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts)
5. John Lennon and Elizabeth Taylor
6. (Empty)
7. Albert Einstein
8. Theodor Geisel
9. Jimi Hendrix, Stieg Larsson, Steve McQueen, and Richard Rodgers
10. (Empty)
11. (Empty)
12. (Empty)
13. George Harrison, Andy Warhol, and Bettie Page
(Forbes)
