From $500M in the Red to a $3B Empire:Why Michael Jackson is Worth More Dead Than Alive

Since the new Michael Jackson movie dropped at the end of April, there’s been a lot of renewed interest in the many facets of the late King of Pop’s life. However, we’ve recently gotten wind of some pretty interesting insights about what Jackson’s finances were looking like around the time of his death and how his estate is faring nowadays. Let’s get into it.

For starters, at the time of the “Thriller” star’s death, he was shockingly in severe debt. And by “shockingly,” we mean $500 million in debt in June 2009, according to court documents reviewed by Parade. They also revealed that Jackson’s yearly spending habits amounted to $50 million a year. And while that may seem like chump change for a global superstar on his level, there were other financial decisions that led up to him accruing so much debt.

One of those decisions was when he reportedly decided to take out a $270 million loan using the 50% ownership stake he had in Sony/ATV as collateral. Jackson would go on to quickly run through that money, as well as an additional $120 million in a short span of time. The other decision lies in the things the “Lady in My Life” singer would spend his coins on; it ran the gamut from things like charitable donations to art, jewelry, gifts, and more. Given all of that, he was sadly on a path to where he was racking up $30 million in debt a month up until his death.

However, it seems as if the estate has made serious strides in taking care of that debt, judging by the series of moves they’ve made since 2009, as Forbes estimated that Jackson has made over $3 billion ever since. In 2023 alone, the estate brought in some serious money—specifically to the tune of $115 million—with at least $85 million of that coming from the popular “MJ: The Musical” in ticket sales. Let’s also not forget that the estate still has control of that 50 percent stake in Sony/ATV (which owns the rights to the Beatles’ catalog, among many other artists). Jackson’s own musical assets were reportedly valued for over $1.2 billion in 2024.

Additionally, when it comes to the new movie that was just released, the estate received $10 million from the start for music licensing and is set to collect 25% share of the film’s profits. It should also be noted here that Jackson’s three kids: Paris, Prince, and Bigi own 40 percent of the estate while the co-executors are people outside the Jackson family, specifically his longtime attorney John Branca and A&R executive John McClain.