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Which dead celebrities earn the most?
Here are the top ten:
1. Kurt Cobain
2. Elvis
3. Charles Schulz
4. John Lennon
5. Albert Einstein
6. Andy Warhol
7. Dr. Seuss
8. Ray Charles
9. Johnny Cash
10. J.R.R. Tolkien
Here is more information. I love "Aneurysm", but I am surprised that Cobain leads the list. I would have expected Schulz and Seuss at the top, followed by Elvis.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 25, 2006 at 01:03 PM in Data Source | Permalink
Comments
Big year for Cobain, due to bulk sales of rights to his work. He should be back down the list next year, and Elvis can resume posthumous hegemony.
Posted by: Zubon at Oct 25, 2006 1:26:41 PM
Echo what Zubon said. Love's legal troubles and financial troubles forced her to sell 25% of Nirvana's catalog a fair amount. It'll be back down next year.
Posted by: Jason Voorhees at Oct 25, 2006 1:46:15 PM
El Che? or does his money go to the revolution?
Posted by: David Zetland at Oct 25, 2006 1:49:44 PM
The Forbes list isn't remotely definitive. Countless celebrities are left off entirely (how is Lennon substantially ahead of Harrison?), and it counts the one-time securitization of Cobain's future revenue stream as an annual revenue source.
Posted by: Ted at Oct 25, 2006 2:11:20 PM
I assume that Lennon is ahead of Harrison for the same reason that Pete Townsend has tons more money than the rest of The Who, namely song-writing royalties.
Posted by: Tim Galebach at Oct 25, 2006 2:16:27 PM
Jesus?
Posted by: josh at Oct 25, 2006 2:31:01 PM
Jesus, unlike L. Ron Hubbard, didn't have the foresight to protect his religion's IP. Omnipotent, indeed.
Posted by: Battlefield Earth at Oct 25, 2006 2:35:44 PM
It seems a little absurd that someone should be collecting royalties for images of Einstein, who has been dead for over 50 years now.
Posted by: ed johnson at Oct 25, 2006 3:03:10 PM
Aneurysm? Come on, Tyler. Do we really have to pretend that these are great songs. I don't hate Nirvana, but people elevate their most mediocre material because the critical community has decided, for some reason, that this band needs to be seen as one of the great bands of all time. What a crock. Sorry--pet peeve of mine
Posted by: steve at Oct 25, 2006 3:03:38 PM
Here is a link to the Forbes feature cited by the article above. There are write-ups on the celebrities, rankings from previous years, and you can vote on future posthumous earners.
And in response to one of the comments above: Nirvana is one of the great rock bands of all time.
Posted by: Trieu Truong at Oct 25, 2006 3:17:35 PM
where is Tupac?
Posted by: paul at Oct 25, 2006 3:54:42 PM
I agree with Steve, except my pet peeve is the glorification of the Beatles.
Posted by: David at Oct 25, 2006 4:28:05 PM
Of course, with respect to Elvis the "dead" part is open to some debate :)
On the outskirts of Las Vegas, off the road that leads to the Mt. Charleston resort area, there's a street sign reading "Elvis Alive Drive." Seriously.
Posted by: Peter at Oct 25, 2006 4:33:47 PM
I agree with David and Steve, except my pet peeve is the glorification of bad ethnic food served in filthy strip mall holes-in-the-wall.
Posted by: anon at Oct 25, 2006 4:49:34 PM
busting on the beatles is just senseless. you can bust on nirvana because of the limited amount of material, but denying the greatness of the songs on nevermind (and some earlier and later (e.g., all apologies, the mtv acoustic stuff)) is pretty silly as well.
Posted by: dj superflat at Oct 25, 2006 5:03:48 PM
where is Tupac?
He's with Elvis on Elvis Alive Drive ...
Of course, the whole problem is that we don't which individual deserves credit for Shakespeare's works, although I suppose we could list him as "the artist known as Shakespeare". One would think he would be up there, since every cheesy movie seems to have some basis in a Shakespearian play. Not that cheesy movies make a ton of money, but there are a lot of cheesy movies.
Posted by: AZ at Oct 25, 2006 5:18:45 PM
How about instead of busting on the Beatles or Nirvana, let's trash IP.
In a free market, a creator has two rights to his property: the right to
his own copies, whether in manuscript or other forms, and the right to
the first sale (or disposal) of it. What a creator (or his estate) does
not have is the "downsteam right" to control the property of other people
and the ways in which they dispose of it. This third, legislated "right"--
the exclusive right to copy and make or license derivative copies of a
copyrighted work--is what causes monopoly prices, rent seekers, and the
Forbes list.
Down with IP, now more than ever!
Posted by: Bill Stepp at Oct 25, 2006 5:26:43 PM
what the heck does einstein make money from? his *picture*? or is there some actual work that creates revenue?
Posted by: anonymous at Oct 25, 2006 6:13:49 PM
Without a doubt, the most undeservedly glorified band with a deceased front man is The Doors. There is no discussion necessary on that point.
I think Einstein is still raking it in from his Baby Einstein series as well as the movie Young Einstein, which tells of the Physicists discovery of the theory of Rock n Roll
Posted by: josh at Oct 25, 2006 6:39:01 PM
David Zetland,
the photographer of the famous picture of Che lets the pro-Che use it for free.
So why does Einstein make money off his picture? Shouldn't competition by paparazzi pictures drive down the price, making the ones owned by him worthless? Maybe people pay for the convenience of one-stop shopping at his agent?
Posted by: Douglas Knight at Oct 25, 2006 8:52:54 PM
It'd be interesting to adjust these figures by years after death. If I'm not mistaken, that would catapult
Einstein to the top of the list.
Posted by: Andres at Oct 25, 2006 8:56:26 PM
Incentives for the dead, the new economics revolution!
It never ceases to surprise me to see all those free-market / small-government hypocrits supporting the biggest and most negative government intervention in the otherwise free market: intellectual property...
Posted by: Laurent GUERBY at Oct 26, 2006 7:38:10 AM
To Douglas Knight,
Presumably the reason competition doesn't drive down the price (to zero)
is because of the compulsory licensing laws enacted early in the 20th
century.
This illustrates part of what's wrong with IP.
In a free market, anyone could use Einstein's image, as an image could
not be owned.
Posted by: Bill Stepp at Oct 26, 2006 9:22:18 AM
For the record, I saw Nirvana live once (1993 tour in support of In Utero) and they were terrible. Obviously, one concert is not a big sample size, but this is one of the worst shows I've ever been to. About two songs in, Cobain was offended after being hit by a thrown object from the audience and left the stage for about 15 minutes. He then returned and put forth an obviously half-assed effort for the rest of the show. Not too professional. At least Elvis was a consummate showman.
Posted by: Thelonious_Nick at Oct 26, 2006 11:10:25 AM
Tupac isn't dead, thats why he's not on the list. Forbes is in on the cover-up.
Posted by: Travis at Oct 27, 2006 3:54:22 PM
