What is Bill Murray’s net worth? Movies, TV shows and awards (2024)

When recently asked about his memories of making the new Ghostbusters movie, Frozen Empire, one of the first things that Bill Murray recalled was the excruciating pain of lugging his ghostbusting backpack around the set. “Y’know, wearing a pack a long time ago was miserable, wearing one now is like torture…” the 73-year-old quipped on CBS Mornings.

Who you gonna call?

On the plus side, the Ghostbusters franchise has turned out to be quite a lucrative exercise for Murray - probably the most financially rewarding one of a career that spans almost 50 years and like with many actors, has brought highs and lows. Murray fell into acting accidentally and showed that he has a great aptitude for it. He started out as a stand-up comedian, working the US circuit and getting his first break on the National Lampoon Radio Hour in the early 70s. He became a household name soon after for his sketches and appearances hosting Saturday Night Live.

Relaxing times

Since then, he has turned his hand to a number of different ventures - writer, producer, voice-over artist and occasionally appearing in the odd commercial - with the same enthusiasm, or lack of, he displayed as stone-faced, Suntory-sipping Bob Harris aimlessly adrift in Shinjuku in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Murray reportedly was paid $1 million for his role in the film, a considerable amount considering it’s lowly, $1 million shoestring budget.

It’s not known what kind of fee Murray would have commanded for making his first appearance in a national commercial - a 60-second ad for Jeep which was aired primetime during the 2020 Super Bowl. “This is my first commercial,” he said to camera during a break in filming. “I’m glad I did it with you [Jeep]. And I’m glad that this is my last commercial, as well!”

Murray has enjoyed a few bumper paydays since his acting career took off in the early 80s. One of his biggest money-spinners was playing Dr. Peter Venkman in the 1984 box office smash, Ghostbusters, with some reports claiming he took home $6 million and others citing a much higher figure as co-stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis managed to negotiate a percentage cut of the movie’s gross box office revenue, which today stands a a cool $296.5 million.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Murray earned around earned approximately $125 million from the first two Ghostbusters movies plus a $15 million payment for his appearance in Ghostbusters Afterlife - more than double the fee he received for Scrooged.

The Illinois-born actor is unusual in that throughout his career, he has been willing to accept lower-paying jobs in independent projects. Among his roles away from the mainstream were is appearances in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005) or as a funeral parlor owner in Aaron Schneider’s indie premiere offering, Get Low (2009).

Celebrity Net Worth estimate that Murray has amassed a fortune of around $180 million - some of which he reinvested in a real estate portfolio, the hospitality sector (his golf-themed Caddyshack restaurants in St Augustine and Rosemont with related merchandise), stocks and bonds plus his ongoing involvement in a number of Illinois-based baseball teams, such as the Joliet Slammers.

Not bad at all for an artist who freely admits he can be quite an awkward guy to work with, and has endured long-standing feuds with several industry colleagues - for Geena Davis, there is no love lost between them. “People say I’m difficult and sometimes that’s a badge of honor,” he said in 2010. “At work I’m just nothing but trouble with anything I don’t want to do. And I fired my agents. I said I didn’t ever want to speak to them again, and I never did. It saved me money but mostly it stopped the irritation of the endless phone calls”.