David Copperfield might be most famous for extravagant illusions that include making the Statue of liberty disappear and walking through the Great Wall of China. But perhaps his biggest feat yet is the enormous nine-figure fortune that the raven-haired 57-year old has quietly amassed over his three-decade career.
The famed illusionist is worth an estimated $800 million by FORBES’ count, thanks to a 13-year stint in Las Vegas, world tours, 20 television specials, a massive irreplaceable collection of magic memorabilia, and a real estate portfolio comprised of multimillion dollar trophy properties. That magical sum lands him on this year’s FORBES 400 list of
Ones To Watch, a 15-person round-up of entrepreneurs, scions, and entertainers with nine-figure fortunes to their names.
At $800 million, Copperfield’s net worth places him in a rare and elite club of ultra-rich self-made celebrities poised to become billionaires in the near-future. Only one other entertainer has cracked the billion dollar club to join the FORBES 400 ranks:
Oprah Winfrey (worth $2.9 billion). And among those up-and-comers we highlighted this year, only three other people fall into this category: pop queen
Madonna ($500 million), pro golfer
Phil Mickelson ($325 million), and country crooner
Toby Keith ($320 million).
Over the course of his career, Copperfield has claimed 11 Guinness World Records, including one for the most tickets sold by a solo performer, trumping Madonna, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Combined, his world tours and Vegas shows have grossed $4 billion and counting. His television specials have earned 21 Emmy awards and reached a total worldwide audience of three billion. Dreams and Nightmares, his 1996 stage show, still holds the record for most Broadway tickets sold in a week, having grossed more than $6 million in its five-week run.
A sizeable chunk of Copperfield’s wealth comes from his Vegas show at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. It has run nonstop for 13 years, with the illusionist performing as many as three shows a day seven days a week for 42 weeks each year. Ticket sales gross as much as $50 million annually, plus merchandising, which he owns. This summer the performer signed a three-year contract that will see see the casino’s Hollywood Theater renamed after him. Later this year,
he will also unveil a new show packed with what he refers to as “Jurassic Park-sized” magic. Among the new features is a green alien automaton named Attila, for which new shirts, toys and a children’s book series are in the works. And he does all of it without the help — or fees — of a manager or agent.
“David’s definitely the hardest working guy in show business,” says Scott Sibella, President and COO of the MGM Grand. “People would kill to have a show like David’s in their property because of the success it has brought.”
Copperfield also owns
the world’s largest collection of magic memorabilia. Comprised of more than 150,000 artifacts and books, his
International Museum & Library of the Conjuring Arts includes prized items from Harry Houdini, Georges Melies, and Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Housed in a 40,000-square foot warehouse a few miles from the Las Vegas Strip, the collection is open only to fellow magicians, historians and academics, actors researching roles, friends and family, and sometimes, to the media. Occasionally, the illusionist trots items out of the building, which he owns, for lectures and exhibitions at venues like the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
“It’s irreplaceable, it’s priceless,” says Copperfield of his ever-growing collection. “You can’t replace it, which is part of the excitement.”
Still, a number can be applied. The massive collection, plus restoration expenses and pricey safety precautions like FM-200 gas systems that protect against fire, has cost the magician upwards of $200 million to assemble. Some appraisers have even supposedly pegged the massive collection — which also includes such items as the Best Director Oscar for 1943′s Casablanca (purchased at auction for $232,000 in 2003) — at a lofty half billion dollars.
Forbes 400: The Richest People In America The average net worth of America’s 400 richest rose $800 million to a record $5 billion this year. Ones To Watch At the rate they’re rising, these moguls and shakers are headed into The Forbes 400 someday. A little luck couldn’t hurt, either. Then there is the real estate. In Vegas, Copperfield and his family, 28-year old fiancee Chloe Gosselin (a French model turned shoe designer) and 3-year old daughter Sky, claim a Skyloft penthouse provided by the MGM Grand and a rented mansion away from the Strip. But he actually owns 11 private islands in the Bahamas and a four-story penthouse in New York City.
His archipelago, located in the coveted Exuma chain of the Bahamas, is now called the Islands of Copperfield Bay. He first started acquiring them in the early 2000s, after initially setting sights on Musha Cay, the largest, most developed of his islands. Copperfield maintains that he chose the island after drawing a line on a globe between Easter Island and England’s Stonehenge, and another one from the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico and the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt: at the lines’ intersection you supposedly find Musha.
The 150-acre Musha Cay cost $55 million in 2006 when the magician finally purchased it after four years of legal jousting with former owner John Melk, an early investor in Blockbuster Video. He also steadily acquired the neighboring 10 properties and poured close to $40 million and five years into renovations.
The resulting private fantasy island retreat is stocked with a discreet staff of 30, macaw parrots trained to clean up beach debris, a vanishing drive-in movie theater on the beach, and furniture sourced from around the world including Harry Houdini’s billiards table. Copperfield and his family spend about 10 weeks each year on Musha; when they aren’t there, it’s rented out to billionaires like Bill Gates and Sergey Brin at a starting price of $37,500 per night.
“I took all my magic knowledge into the island,” says Copperfield, whose Vegas-based illusions team has been crafting a James Bond–inspired spy hunt that will be added to the islands’ laundry list of sensational activities. “The island experience is based on everything that I felt was great having been at the best places I’ve been in the world.”
Between purchase price and renovations, the 700-acre archipelago runs close to $95 million in value. By way of comparison, the most expensive sale in the Exumas was the Aga Khan’s $100 million purchase of the 349-acre Bell Island in 2009.
“The two key islands are Musha and Rudder Cut Cay,” estimates
George Damianos, president of Bahamas brokerage Damianos Sotheby’s International Realty. “My educated guess is Rudder Cut would sell very quickly for between $20 and $30 million. Musha could get $50, maybe up to $70 million.”
Copperfield also owns a massive penthouse in Manhattan’s Midtown neighborhood, just south of Central Park. Located in the Galleria building, Copperfield’s condo spreads across four floors, encompassing 10,000 square feet of interior space and 6,000 square feet of private terraces and rooftop gardens. He purchased the apartment in 1997 for $7.4 million. Today its value could run upwards of $60 million according to local experts and sales comps for nearby penthouse co-ops and condos.
The penthouse was originally built for Stewart Mott, an eccentric philanthropist and an heir to the General Motors empire, who reportedly never moved into the space. It has 18 rooms, a glass-enclosed lap pool and wraparound windows overlooking the park. Copperfield says he is renovating the entire apartment, a process expected to take three years.
The apartment is also home to two other collections belonging to the magician. It houses some 300 antique arcade machines that Copperfield has restored and put on display. The other collection, an assortment of life-size antique mannequins once used as “models” by painters like Gaugin, hang suspended from the living room walls. “New York City [home] is an art gallery in an unconventional way,” Copperfield explains.
As for his near-billionaire status? “I work really hard and it keeps adding up.”
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For more on David Copperfield’s magic collection and new show, check out the Forbes Life feature story,
“Reappearing Act: Inside The Multimillion Dollar World Of David Copperfield.”
fonte:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2013/09/25/magician-david-copperfields-800-million-fortune-could-make-him-a-future-billionaire/#undefined
