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The Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2025
Forbes ^ | October 31, 2025 | Matt Craig

Posted on 11/03/2025 10:47:05 AM PST by Whatever Works

For the 25th annual Forbes ranking, The Notorious B.I.G., Miles Davis and Jimmy Buffett join a heavenly lineup of musicians as the greatest earners in the great beyond. Plus: How Michael Jackson earned $3.5 billion in the afterlife.

In 2001, Elvis Presley topped Forbes’ first list tracking the highest-earning celebrity estates, and The King has appeared on every edition of the rankings in the 25 years since, earning over $1.2 billion during that span. Yet it’s another member of music royalty who has truly broken the paradigm for posthumous earnings—Elvis’ onetime son-in-law, Michael Jackson.

The King of Pop’s estate has earned an astonishing $3.5 billion since his death in 2009, according to Forbes estimates, topping this year’s list once again with $105 million in earnings over the past 12 months. “When it comes to estate earnings,” one high-profile estate lawyer tells Forbes, “It’s MJ, then an enormous canyon, then everybody else.”

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: celebrities; dead
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To: plain talk

He was also a huge liberal Democrat. Lots of virtue signaling.


21 posted on 11/03/2025 2:23:37 PM PST by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: Whatever Works

Thanks to AI, Elvis is bigger than ever.

Elvis as Captain Kirk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rA7nyMhKZY


22 posted on 11/03/2025 2:26:11 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: plain talk

Rock on!


23 posted on 11/03/2025 2:29:08 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: plain talk

“He said in an interview that it became increasingly awkward to sing his lyrics once he became rich.“

In a related case Bob Dylan said “It’s hard to be an angry millionaire.”


24 posted on 11/03/2025 3:12:43 PM PST by TalBlack (Their god is government. Prepare for a religious war.https://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=4322961%2)
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To: Tunehead54

I suggested to JimRob FR should award certain FReepers with recognition for their posts, research, new information, useful volume of contributions. I don’t think anything came of it but you would have been on the list. ;-) Charlie


Blush.


25 posted on 11/03/2025 3:28:26 PM PST by Liz (To make a conservative mad, lie to him. To make a leftist mad, tell him the truth.)
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To: little jeremiah

Have you seen this?


26 posted on 11/03/2025 3:53:59 PM PST by cibco (Donate monthly, it's not that hard...)
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To: little jeremiah

Never mind - wrong thread.


27 posted on 11/03/2025 3:55:36 PM PST by cibco (Donate monthly, it's not that hard...)
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To: dfwgator

David Essex.... ROCK ON.(partial lyrics)

Hey, did you rock ‘n’ roll?
Rock on
Ooh, my soul
Hey, did you boogie too, did ya?
Hey, shout, summertime blues
Jump up (up, down) and down in my blue suede shoes
Hey, did you rock ‘n’ roll?
Rock on
And where do we go from here?
Which is a way that’s clear?
Still looking for that blue-jean baby-queen
Prettiest girl I’ve ever seen
See her shake on the movie screen
Jimmy Dean
(James Dean)


28 posted on 11/03/2025 4:00:24 PM PST by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. https://youtu.be/VexKSRKoWQY)
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To: dfwgator

I’d watch that show!


29 posted on 11/03/2025 4:06:23 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: BradyLS

Elvis makes everything better.


30 posted on 11/03/2025 4:07:21 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: BradyLS

Elvis auditioning for the role of Han Solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Zo5Osn-_4


31 posted on 11/03/2025 4:08:49 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: Whatever Works

Yet his family has blown thru most of it. Priscilla took over and rescued the estate before it was all gone then spent
the money on bad face lifts.

Elvis Presley topped Forbes’ first list tracking the highest-earning celebrity estates, and The King has appeared on every edition of the rankings in the 25 years since, earning over $1.2 billion during that span.


32 posted on 11/04/2025 2:22:47 AM PST by minnesota_bound (Making money now. Still want much more.)
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To: plain talk

and a leftist.............


33 posted on 11/04/2025 2:58:08 AM PST by vis a vis
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