Kevin Costner Net Worth

Kevin Costner is an American actor best known for his roles in Dances with Wolves, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and most recently, Yellowstone. Since starting his acting career in Hollywood in the early 1980s, Costner has starred in more than 70 movies and television series.

However, it’s not just his work as an actor that has contributed to his success. Kevin Costner’s net worth is also impacted by his work as a producer, director, and a musician. Additionally, it’s also affected by his real estate and business investments. Continue on to discover Costner’s most successful projects and follow his career from the 1980s until now.

Early Life

Kevin Michael Costner was born in Lynwood California on January 18, 1955. His father’s name was William Costner who worked as a utility executive at Southern California Edison. His mother’s name was Sharon Rae who was a welfare worker.

Because of his father’s job, Costner moved around a lot with his family as a child. He attended several schools and ultimately graduated from Villa Park High School. He went on to attend California State University Fullerton where he earned a degree in marketing and finance.

Acting Career

He was in his final year at university when Costner developed an interest in acting. He started taking serious acting lessons after graduation. To support his tuition, he took on a variety of jobs as a truck driver, fishing boat worker, and Hollywood tour guide. He did get to apply for his degree when he worked as a marketing executive for a month.

Early Projects

Costner’s determination soon paid off when he landed his first film role in Sizzle Beach, USA, released in 1981. This was quickly followed by other minor roles. Soon, he was being cast in the lead role in films like Shadows Run Black, Fandango, and Silverado.

Costner first appeared on television in 1985 in an episode of Stephen Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. In 1987, Costner got his big film break as he was cast in The Untouchables where he played Elliot Ness. He starred alongside Hollywood greats Sean Connery and Robert De Niro. By this time, he was still in the early stages of being an A-list actor, but Kevin Costner’s net worth was definitely about to take off shortly.

Bull Durman

Barely a year later, Costner received his first 7-digit salary for a single film. He was paid $1.5 million for playing the role of baseball star Crash Davis in Bull Durham. The film did very well at the box office, making close to $51 million in worldwide gross revenues.

Field of Dreams

The following year brought another blockbuster for Costner as he played the lead in the sports film Field of Dreams. The film, which once again revolved around baseball, generated $84.4 million in global theater sales.

Dances with Wolves

Costner has his directorial debut in 1990’s Dances with Wolves, which had a production budget of $22 million. Ticket sales started slowly at only $598,257 over the first weekend. It eventually picked up and the film closed with over $424 million in total box office revenue. Costner also received a salary of $3 million for his acting work.

Monetary earnings aside, Costner really hit the jackpot with this movie because it won him a multitude of awards including two Oscars. These were for Best Picture and Best Director. He also got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

JFK

Kevin Costner’s net worth continued to climb in the 1990s as he starred in hit after hit. In 1991, he portrayed Jim Garrison in the Oliver Stone political thriller JFK.

He received $7 million in salary for the flick. The movie was also a hit, finishing its theater run with $205.4 million in worldwide earnings.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

In the same year, Costner starred in and also produced Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. With a working budget of $48 million, it was able to generate an amazing $390.5 million from theaters around the world. Part of the reason could be the star-studded cast that included Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, and Alan Rickman.

His acting was not at its best in this film though, as verified by his win as Worst Actor in that year’s Golden Raspberry Awards.

The Bodyguard

Costner would then co-star with Whitney Houston in the 1992 romantic drama, The Bodyguard. He was also a producer for the film, which raked in more than $411 million from ticket sales.

Waterworld

In 1995, Costner produced and starred in the post-apocalyptic film Waterworld. It has $175 million, $14 million of which went to his acting salary. The film went on to earn $264.2 million in global theater sales. As per the agreement, he also received a percentage of these earnings.

The Postman 

Costner sat in the director’s chair once again in 1997 for another post-apocalyptic film, The Postman. However this time, both critics and audiences were not impressed. It made just a little over $17.6 million at the box office, against a pretty hefty budget of $80 million.

Thirteen Days 

Another box office failure would come in 2000. However, Kevin Costner’s net worth got a sizable boost from the project as he received a salary of $15 million for his role in the drama Thirteen Days. Unfortunately, they were not able to recoup the expenses as the film only earned $66.6 million on a budget of $80 million.

Dragonfly

This trend continued in 2002 when Costner once again signed for a salary of $15 million for the supernatural thriller Dragonfly. Again, it did not quite hit box office targets, generating only $52.3 million which was definitely short of the $60 million budget.

Man of Steel

Costner would then become part of the DC Extended Universe in its first film, Man of Steel. He would play the role of Superman’s father, Jonathan Kent. His salary is not known but the film did earn a sizable $668 million over a $225 million budget.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Three years later, Costner would reprise this role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Again, his salary was not revealed but with a budget of $250 million, we can assume that it would be a few million as well. The film was another hit, earning $873.6 million at the box office.

Yellowstone

Costner would shift his attention to television in 2018 when he was cast in a main role in the neo-Western series on Paramount called Yellowstone. By the peak of the series, Costner was getting paid a whopping $1.3 million per episode.

For his performance, he had recently won the Best Actor award at the Golden Globes and had also received a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. Costner is also an executive producer of the show.

Recent Work

Aside from his ongoing TV series, Costner has also recently appeared in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, once again portraying Jonathan Kent. He is also slated to star in, direct and produce the upcoming Western film, Horizon.

Other Ventures

Aside from his earnings as a highly successful actor and film director, Kevin Costner’s net worth has also been largely impacted by a number of other ventures. For instance, he is also the lead vocalist for Kevin Costner & Modern West. It is a country rock band that he founded in 2007. The band has released four albums to date, including Untold Truths and most recently, Tales from Yellowstone, and they have also gone on multiple world tours.

Costner also used to play pro baseball, which explains why many of his films are themed around the sport. He also used to partially own the baseball team Lake County Fielders from Zion, Illinois.

On the business front, Costner made some money selling oil separation machines to Oil Therapy Solutions in 2010. It became a rather controversial deal involving fellow actor Stephen Baldwin, but ended up favorably for Costner.

In 2004, Costner opened an entertainment attraction called Tatanka: The Story of the Bison in South Dakota. From 1991 to 2017, Costner owned the Midnight Star Casino and Restaurant, also in South Dakota. Just recently, he became a co-founder and investor for the audio entertainment travel app called HearHere.

Real Estate

A considerable part of Kevin Costner’s net worth comes in the form of his impressive real estate investments. Throughout his career, the actor director has purchased numerous homes all over the country.

One of his most famous properties is in Aspen, Colorado. It spans 160 acres and includes three gorgeous homes along the lake. This prime real estate is available for rent at the rate of $36,000 a night.

In his home state of California, Costner had bought a 17-acre parcel of land in the beachfront town of Carpinteria. He had paid $28.5 million for it in 2006. And in 2017, the property was listed for $60 million.

In addition, the Costners also own a 10-acre property, which they had previously tried to sell. But there were no takers. In 2009 though, they were able to sell a 7-acre property in the same area for $25 million.

Personal Life

Very soon after graduating from college, Costner married Cindy Silva. Their marriage bore three children – Annie, Lily, and Joe – but they called it quits in 1994. Costner then hooked up with Bridget Rooney, with whom he had his second son, Liam Timothy in 1996. Later on, he dated Birgit Cunningham, a political activist, then moved in with supermodel Elle Macpherson.

In 2004, Costner tied the knot once more, this time with designer and model Christine Baumgartner. They are still happily married and have three children together – Cayden, Hayes, and Grace.

Kevin Costner’s Net Worth Today

As of 2023, Kevin Costner’s net worth is estimated at $300 million. While a large portion of that number comes from Costner’s acting career, his net worth is also impacted by his work as a director, and producer, and his business and real estate investments.

Fans of Costner can look forward to seeing him next in Horizon, which he’s currently filming. He’s also directing and producing the project for New Line Cinema. The Western-drama also stars Sam Worthington, Sienna Miller, Will Patton, and Michael Rooker.

Additionally, he has a number of projects coming up that he’s producing, including One Giant Leap, National Parks, The One, The Gray House, and Onward – just to name a few.