Leonardo DiCaprio’s Net Worth in 2024: How the ‘Titanic’ Star Became One of Hollywood’s Highest Paid Actors

Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who is best known for his roles in Titanic, The Departed, Inception, and, most recently, Killers of the Flower Moon. Since his career first took off in the 1990s, he’s starred in more than 45 movies and television series.

However, Leonardo DiCaprio’s net worth comes from more than just his impressive acting career. His financial success also comes from his work as a producer and writer. His real estate investments and brand partnerships also significantly impact his wealth.

Let’s take a look at DiCaprio’s most financially successful projects on the big screen and trace his career from the beginning until the present day.

Early Life

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, CA on November 11, 1974. This American Hollywood star comes from mixed ancestry. His mother, Irmelin Indenbirken DiCaprio, comes from German and Russian roots. His father, George DiCaprio, is of Italian and German lineage. He was a comic book artist.

DiCaprio grew up in a rather unconventional setup. When he was a year old, his father fell in love with a different woman, which led to his parents’ separation. However, his parents still wanted to be partners in raising him, so they moved into twin homes. DiCaprio lived with his mother in one house, and his father lived with his girlfriend and her son in the other house.

Eventually, DiCaprio and his mother moved, though still staying in Los Angeles. He began attending John Marshall High School but eventually dropped out. He wanted to work as an actor to help with the family’s finances. And he did earn his GED later on.

Getting Started as an Actor

Even as a child, DiCaprio already had a passion for acting. He had appeared in a variety of TV advertisements and also played several small roles in TV shows. Among his most notable commercial acting work was the one for Mattel’s Matchbox cars. He also did ads for Bubble Yum, Apple Jacks, and Kraft Singles.

DiCaprio had a rough start with actually launching his acting career. It took him a long time to find an agent. Even when he found one, he remained jobless for over a year. But with his father’s constant motivation and his desire to support his mother financially, DiCaprio persevered.

He finally got his foot in the door when he got a regular role in TV series such as The Outsiders and Santa Barbara. Later, he was cast as Garry Buckman in Parenthood, which earned him a nomination for Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series. A year later, he joined the cast of Growing Pains and earned a Young Artist Award for his role.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Acting Career

Towards the mid-1990s, DiCaprio started to get noticed as a film actor. He played Johnny Depp’s brother in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. This role earned him Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor. IMDB reports that he made $75,000 for the film.

In 1996, he starred in Romeo + Juliet opposite Claire Danes. The film grossed $147 million, earning him a Silver Bear for Best Actor. And then, in 1997, DiCaprio starred in James Cameron’s Titanic, which propelled him to an entirely new level of fame. He made $2.5 million and 1.8% of backend profits from his role as Jack Dawson. As of 2023, Titanic‘s box office earnings have grown to more than $2.26 billion – adding more than $40 million to Leonardo DiCaprio’s net worth.

DiCaprio continued to make smart choices with his movie roles. He starred in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can in 2002, where he reportedly made his second $20 million salary, with the first being 2000’s The Beach. After that, he took on the lead role in the 2002 Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, which gained much critical acclaim. He reportedly earned $10 million in salary from the role in addition to gross points.

He and Scorsese worked so well together that they collaborated several more times. They did The Aviator in 2004, The Departed in 2006, Shutter Island in 2010, and The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. Also in 2013, he released The Great Gatsby. While DiCaprio’s salary for Shutter Island hasn’t been disclosed, IMDB reports that he made $20 million in compensation from each of these other films.

During that time, he also made Blood Diamond (with a $20 million salary), Inception (with a $59 million salary + back-end points from worldwide gross + share of D.VD. and pay T.V. revenue), and Django Unchained, where he took a bit of a salary cut, only making a reported $1 million.

In 2015, shortly after doing The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio’s net worth passed the $200 million mark. He then took a 4-year break from acting and focused more on producing.

Recent Projects

He returned to acting in 2019 when he played opposite Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The two actors worked very well together and even helped fund the film by taking a salary cut. DiCaprio only made $10 million from the film.

In 2021, DiCaprio starred in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up for Netflix, where he made $30 million in compensation. And, most recently, he starred in 2023’s Killers of a Flower Moon, where he received another salary of $30 million. He also served as an executive producer for the film. With an overall budget of $200 million, the Martin Scorsese-directed movie has grossed $156.8 million worldwide.

Personal Life

DiCaprio has never been married but is known to have dated several famous international models. From 2000 to 2005, he was in a relationship with Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

After they broke up, DiCaprio hooked up with another model, Israeli Bar Refaeli until 2011. During this period, he met Israel’s President Shimon Peres in person when he visited Refaeli’s hometown.

In 2013, DiCaprio found romance with German model Toni Garrn. The relationship lasted about a year and a half. In 2022, DiCaprio was dating Camila Morrone, an Argentine-American actress and also a model. And most recently, as of 2024, DiCaprio is reported to be dating Italian model Vittoria Ceretti. DiCaprio has no children, and he says he is not sure he even wants to bring children into a world such as this one.

Charitable Work

In 1998, the actor started the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. It is a non-profit organization geared towards the promotion of environmental awareness. Its key concentrations are on global warming, renewable energy, and the preservation of the planet’s biodiversity. By 2017, the foundation has awarded more than $20 million in grants in support of environmental advocacies.

Real Estate Investments

Also contributing to Leonardo DiCaprio’s net worth is the real estate investments he’s made over the years. However, instead of just wanting to own these lavish properties, his aim is actually to earn from them.

For instance, he bought his first Malibu home in 1998 for $1.6 million and leased it at a monthly rate of $25,000 to $50,000. In 2021, he parted with it for $10.3 million, after earning a huge sum from it.

Today, DiCaprio has a very impressive real estate portfolio amounting to more than $100 million. This includes an oceanfront Malibu property worth $23 million and a Palm Springs mansion worth $5.2 million.

He also owns a Beverly Hills home worth $9.9 million, and two New York apartments worth $10 million and $11.7 million, respectively. These properties certainly make up a significant part of Leonardo DiCaprio’s net worth.

In addition, DiCaprio also has more than 10 properties all over Southern California, plus his own private island in Belize. He had acquired the island in 2005.

In 2016, he began converting it into an eco-friendly resort where all facilities run on renewable energy. Private homes are being built on the island, to be sold at $5 million to $15 million each.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Net Worth in 2024

As of 2024, Leonardo DiCaprio’s net worth is estimated at $300 million. The majority of DiCaprio’s wealth comes from his work as an actor. However, his work as a producer and writer and his real estate investments also impact that number.

It’s also reported that DiCaprio owns the world’s most expensive movie poster, the international poster for Fritz Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis. The poster sold at auction for $690,000.

IMDB Pro lists more than 46 projects in various stages of development for DiCaprio. The majority of those projects have DiCaprio listed in a producer capacity.

Next will likely be another project with Martin Scorsese, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, which is reported to be in pre-production The Apple TV+ film, is based on the book by David Grann, and tells the story of a British naval ship “Wager” which wrecks on a desolate island off the tip of South America in 1740. The captain and the crew struggle to survive and maintain order while also battling intense weather…. and their own human nature.