Matt Damon Net Worth

Matt Damon is an American actor best known for his roles in The Bourne Identity and Ocean’s Eleven franchises. Having started his career in Hollywood in the late 1980s, Damon has appeared in more than 90 movies and television series.

With success coming early in his career, Matt Damon’s net worth has been steadily growing since the mid-90s. However, it’s not just his acting work that impacts his net worth. He’s also an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, with his 1997 film Good Will Hunting earning him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Additionally, his work as a producer and his real estate investments have significantly impacted his success.

Read on as we take a look at Damon’s career and trace his rise to fame and his most successful projects.

Early Life

Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Cambridge, MA. His father, Kent Damon, is a stockbroker and his mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, is a professor. When Damon was just two-years-old, his parents split. And he and his brother Kyle stayed with their mother in a communal residence that housed 6 families.

As a child, Damon became good friends with Ben Affleck, who would later on also become a famous actor as well. He got his education from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. And he also attended Cambridge Alternative School.

Damon attended Harvard University and was majoring in English. However, when he was just 12 units short of completing his degree, he dropped out and flew to Los Angeles because he was cast in Geronimo: An American Legend. His stint at Harvard was not wasted though. It was for an English class that he wrote the first draft of the Good Will Hunting screenplay, which would later earn him an Oscar.

Acting Career

While at Harvard, Damon acted in several student plays, like A… My Name Is Alice and Burn This. He also appeared in Rising Son and School Ties. When he was 18, he appeared on film for the first time in Mystic Pizza, though he only had one line in the entire movie.

Geronimo: An American Legend, the film for which Damon left University, did not turn out to be the success that he expected. Four years later, Damon lost 40 pounds to portray a soldier in Courage Under Fire. And it was in this project that he first caught the attention of film critics.

Damon also gave a brilliant performance in the 1997 film The Rainmaker. Here, he gained back almost all of the weight he had just lost, once the film wrapped. Because of his performance, the Los Angeles Times called him “a talented young actor on the brink of stardom.” Who could have known how prophetic those words were?

Good Will Hunting

As mentioned earlier, Damon wrote an early version of the Good Will Hunting screenplay for an English class assignment at Harvard. Together with Affleck, he continued working on the screenplay. He moved in with Affleck in his Los Angeles apartment, where they polished the script and eventually sold it to Miramax.

In 1997, the movie was released and it was an instant hit at the box office. It received nine Academy Awards nominations, including Best Actor for Damon. The movie won Damon and Affleck the Oscar for Best Screenplay. The two friends also co-starred in the movie, along with Robin Williams who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

The film earned more than $225 million in worldwide ticket sales. However, both Damon and Affleck received salaries of only $600,000 each for their respective roles. Not a big addition to Matt Damon’s net worth, but it certainly laid the groundwork for him to make more on future projects.

While filming his breakthrough movie, director Steven Spielberg met with Damon on set. Spielberg had selected him to play the title role in Saving Private Ryan. Following this, Damon appeared as the antihero in The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he lost weight once again. He also reunited with his friend Affleck in the controversial film Dogma, also in 1999.

Ocean’s Eleven Movies

Soon after the turn of the millennium, Damon found himself a part of two of the highest-grossing movie franchises ever, the Ocean Trilogy franchise and the Bourne franchise. In 2001, Damon played the role of Linus Caldwell in Ocean’s Eleven.

Damon starred opposite George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Brad Pitt in the Steven Soderbergh-directed film. And on a budget of just $85 million, the movie grossed more than $450 million worldwide.

Matt Damon’s net worth got a considerable boost from the film, as he reportedly received a $5.5 million salary for the film. And as of 2022, Ocean’s Eleven is Damon’s seventh highest-grossing film. The film’s success was enough to greenlight a sequel, 2004’s Ocean’s Twelve.

While not as successful as the original flick, Ocean’s Twelve still rocked the box office, earning more than $362 million worldwide against its $110 million budget. The ticket sales were enough to justify a third film, 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen.

Ocean’s Thirteen reduced its production budget back to $85 million and ended up grossing just over $311 million worldwide.

The Bourne Identity Movies

A year after Ocean’s Eleven, Matt Damon’s net worth got another sizable boost. This time for taking on the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity.

Damon reportedly earned a salary of $10 million for the first film. And for the following two films that increased to $26 million. And for 2016’s Jason Bourne, Vanity Fair reports that he earned roughly $1 million per line of dialogue.

The Martian

In 2015, Damon starred opposite Jessica Chastain and Kristen Wiig in The Martian, which as of 2022, is his fifth highest-grossing film. With a budget of $108 million, the film went on to gross $630 million worldwide.

Forbes reported that Damon was paid $25 million for the role.

Ford v Ferrari

In 2019, Damon appeared alongside Christain Bale and Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe in Ford v Ferrari, which was nominated for countless awards that year. The film received 5 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. While it didn’t win that award, it did take home Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing.

While it’s not the exact salary Damon received for the film, we do know that Ford v Ferrari had a budget just shy of $98 million, and it grossed $225 million at the worldwide box office.

Recent Work

In 2022, Damon starred in Thor: Love and Thunder as Actor Loki. With a massive budget of $250 million, the Marvel film made $760.9 million globally.

Damon’s role in the film is the same character that he played in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. And even though his part was uncredited in the movie, it still stands as Damon’s highest-grossing film, earning over $853 million worldwide.

Real Estate

Matt Damon’s net worth comes in various forms, including the lavish property investments that he has made over the years. Most recently, he has reportedly purchased a penthouse in New York worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million. This is in preparation for the cross-country move that he and his wife is preparing to make. Earlier, Damon listed his LA property for sale at $21 million.

In 2012, the couple bought a Pacific Palisades home for almost $15 million. They flipped it nine years later and managed to sell it at $18 million. Then in 2017, they bought a $16.8 million penthouse in Brooklyn Heights in New York. At the time, it set the record for the highest price for a Brooklyn house.

Personal Life

Damon met his wife whose name was Luciana Barroso at a club in Miami in the early 2000s. At the time, she was actually a single mother working as a bartender. They hit it off right away and two years later, they were married. Damon also adopted Luciana’s daughter, Alexia, who was 7 years old at the time.

The couple now has three daughters of their own. Isabella was born in June 2006. Two years later, Gia Zavala was born in August 2008. Finally, Stella, the youngest, came in October 2010.

Matt Damon Net Worth 2022

As of 2022, Matt Damon’s net worth is estimated at $170 million. And while a large portion of his net worth comes from acting, it’s also impacted by his producing and writing work, in addition to his real estate investments.

What’s up next for the actor? While Damon has been spending considerable time behind the cameras as a producer on numerous projects. Fans can catch him next on the big screen in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which is set to be released on July 21, 2023.

Damon is also working on another project with Ben Affleck that will follow the history of shoe salesman, Sonny Vaccaro, who led Nike in its pursuit of Michael Jordan. The movie, Air Jordan, is currently in post-production.