What We Know About 'Air' Actor Matt Damon's Net Worth

Jessica Sager
·14 min read
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Unfortunately for his bank account, the shoes are not called Air Damons.

Matt Damon is back on the big screen! In his latest collaboration with bestie/writing partner/on-screen pal Ben Affleck Air, Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike executive behind Michael Jordan's famous Air Jordan shoe. While the lucrative Nike deal has reportedly made Jordan over $1.3 billion, Damon's net worth in 2023 is no where near that amount. But don't start crying just yet. Matt Damon is one of Hollywood's highest earners and makes a sizable sum per movie. But it didn't start that way.

Growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of a stockbroker named Kent and an early childhood education professor named Nancy, Damon lived just two blocks away from his lifelong best friend and future professional partner, Affleck. The duo developed their love of acting, writing and directing early on, then continued to pursue showbiz stardom after Damon dropped out of Harvard, where he majored in English, to head to Hollywood with his BFF. Damon made his big-screen debut at the age of 18 and has worked steadily since—breaking into the A-list ranks right alongside Affleck with their 1997 sleeper hit, Good Will Hunting.

After the heyday of "Matt and Ben" mania—plus Damon's high-profile relationships with Minnie Driver and Winona Ryder—Damon grew to appreciate a quieter life. He met wife Luciana while filming Stuck On You in Miami, and together they've raised four girls and largely remained out of the public eye. Damon credits his ability to keep his personal life private to simply not seeming interesting enough for the paparazzi to pursue him.

"They can try to stake me out, but they're always going to get the same story—middle-aged married guy with four kids," he previously told Esquire. "So as long as that narrative doesn't change too much, there's no appetite for it. If I'm not jumping up and down on a bar, or lighting something on fire, or cheating on my wife, there's not really any story to tell."

That's also because the 52-year-old Damon is busy telling stories on screen. He recently teamed up again with Ben Affleck to write and star in The Last Duel, and popped up briefly in Thor: Love and Thunder in a cameo. He produced and starred in Affleck's latest directorial endeavor Air, playing Sonny Vaccaro, the man behind Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, and will appear in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer later this summer.

The down-to-earth Martian star is one of the highest-grossing actors of his generation, but that doesn't mean he's the wealthiest or even the most bankable—and he's the first to admit it.

"Payments are changing a lot and the business has been carved up pretty good so all the salaries have taken a whack recently," Damon told The Telegraph in 2015. "My salaries are constantly changing and I don't know if that is because I'm running hot or I'm running cold. Careers are constantly changing, so you get paid based on how well you are perceived to be doing."

Here's hoping he doesn't sell himself short, because by all accounts, he's doing quite well. Keep reading to learn all about Matt Damon's net worth and how he made it!

Related: Matt Damon: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Jason Bourne Star

What is Matt Damon's net worth in 2023?

Matt Damon's net worth is an estimated $170 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

How much did Matt Damon make for Air?

While we don't know for sure how much Damon specifically made for Air, the film itself reportedly cost between $70 million-$80 million to make. While Damon is the lead and has made upwards of $25 million for other leading rolls, because this is an ensemble film with a lower budget, Damon's pay was probably closer to $15 million. However, he is also a producer on the film, which would have earned him a separate paycheck.

How much did Matt Damon and Ben Affleck make for Good Will Hunting?

Damon and BFF Affleck wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting in 1997. It was Damon's first major role and the duo's first screenplay together, and it was a massive hit, grossing $225.9 million on a $10 million budget. Damon said he and Affleck sold the script for $600,000 and that he was paid an additional $350,000 for his star turn as the titular M.I.T. janitor and genius. The duo won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the project, and their celebration on the Academy Awards stage was full of pure, unadulterated joy.

Related: You Have to See Matt Damon’s New Tattoos Dedicated to His Four Daughters

How much did Matt Damon make for Jason Bourne?

Damon's most commercially successful franchise has been the Jason Bourne movies, with Damon taking on the title role in 2002's The Bourne Identity, 2004's The Bourne Supremacy, 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum and 2016's Jason Bourne. It's been estimated that Damon raked in $26 million each for The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, plus another $25 million for Jason Bourne. (What, he wasn't good for that last million again?) Even more amazing, it was also estimated by Vanity Fair that Damon had only 25 lines of dialogue in Jason Bourne, meaning each one earned him a cool mil!

How much did Matt Damon make for The Martian?

Per Vanity Fair, Damon pocketed another $25 million for his Oscar-nominated starring performance in 2015's The Martian.

How much did Matt Damon get paid for Spirit?

If you've got kids who love horses—or you were such a kid nearly 20 years ago—then you've probably heard Damon's voice as the titular horse in the 2002 animated movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. That vocal-only performance reportedly raked in $2.3 million for the actor.

How much has Matt Damon made from other movies?

It's been reported that Damon makes an estimated $10 million per movie—but as he's said, there can be a lot of fluctuation surrounding that figure.

Damon began his career with a handful of small parts in films like Mystic Pizza, Chasing Amy, Courage Under Fire, School Ties, Glory Daze, as well as some TV projects.

Post-Good Will Hunting, he played Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan, a massive global hit grossing $482 million worldwide on a $70 million budget. He followed with two cult classics: Rounders, which made $23 million on a $12 million budget, and Dogma (alongside Affleck, and the first time he'd play a version of a character named Loki!), which made $31 million on a $10 million budget.

The Talented Mr. Ripley was a major success, and Damon received critical acclaim for his role.

His next slate of projects, however, were commercial disappointments. Damon performed a voiceover role in Titan A.E. in 2000, which underperformed at the box office, making $37 million on a $70 million budget. Damon next appeared in The Legend of Bagger Vance, though he wasn't the marquee name on the film (that was Will Smith); it also underperformed, with just $39 million in ticket grosses on an $80 million budget. That same year, All the Pretty Horses made just $18 million from a $80 million budget.

Related: Like Us, Matt Damon Hopes Bennifer Is Back On: ‘That Would Be Awesome’

Damon bounced back with a small role in Finding Forrester, which took in $80 million on a $43 million budget, and a cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was a hit.

The first installment of the Oceans ensemble franchise, Ocean's Eleven, placed Damon with A-listers including George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and the film was a smash, raking in $451 million on an $85 million budget.

Damon laid low for the most part in 2002, doing some voice work but not trying his hand at leading man roles until The Bourne Identity. It was Damon's inaugural performance as Jason Bourne and a huge hit, making $214 million on a $60 million budget.

He followed with some under-performers and bit parts and cameos before reprising the role of Bourne in 2004's The Bourne Supremacy and starring in Ocean's Twelve, both of which were hits once more. The Brothers Grimm disappointed, but he saw box office and critical successes with Martin Scorsese's The Departed and when he appeared alongside pal Clooney once more in Syriana.

Pairing Damon with Angelina Jolie for The Good Shepherd seemed like a guaranteed blockbuster, but the film underperformed at the box office, taking in $100 million on a $110 million budget. However, like he had before, Damon rebounded in 2007 with Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum, each making box office bank.

For the next several years, Damon's box office numbers were a rollercoaster once more:

Damon's next massive hit was in 2014 with Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. The epic space drama made $702 million worldwide on a $165 million budget. In 2015, Damon had an out-of-this-world hit once more with The Martian, for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. The film grossed $630 million on a $108 million budget. The following year, Damon reprised his spy role in Jason Bourne, which made $415 million on a $120 million budget.

The following year, Damon starred in The Great Wall, for which he received a significant amount of critical blowback for allegedly promoting white savior tropes. The film made $335 million worldwide on a $150 million budget. In July 2021, he revealed on WTF With Marc Maron that his daughters still tease him about the movie, which he felt was doomed when director Zhang Yimou was pressured into giving up his original ideas for the movie to please investors.

Related: Matt Damon on Downsizing, Difficult Auditions and His Friendship With George Clooney

"I was like, 'This is exactly how disasters happen,'" he recalled. "It doesn’t cohere. It doesn't work as a movie." He added, "I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor: knowing you're in a turkey and going, 'OK, I've got four more months. It's the up at dawn siege on Hamburger Hill. I am definitely going to die here, but I’m doing it.' That's as s***ty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again."

From 2017 on, Damon's grosses were quieter, but his cameos once more kept him a beloved Hollywood fixture:

How much do Matt Damon and Ben Affleck make as producers?

As a producer, Damon has 23 credits, including Air, Manchester by the Sea and Jason Bourne, as well as Project Greenlight, in which he selected projects to produce (including horror-comedy favorite Feast). Together, he and Affleck lead Pearl Street Films. Their previous production company, LivePlanet, was behind several big-ticket movies, including American Pie 2 and American Wedding.

Related: Was Matt Damon Originally Cast for Casey Affleck’s Manchester by the Sea Role?

Was Matt Damon supposed to be in Avatar?

Damon revealed that he turned down the lead role in James Cameron's Avatar. The movie went on to be one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and Damon said he would have made a whopping $250 million if he'd played Jake Sully in the blockbuster because he would've been entitled to 10% of the back end profits.

"I will go down in history," he told Deadline. "You will never meet an actor who turned down more money." Damon was reportedly unable to take the part because of his commitment to the Jason Bourne franchise and its scheduling demands. He recalled telling The Office star John Krasinski about the decision, who Damon said replied, "Nothing would be different in your life if you had done Avatar, except you and me would be having this conversation in space."

The role eventually went to Sam Worthington.

What does Matt Damon make from endorsements?

For the most part, Damon makes his money from making movies, but he has had some brand partnerships. He appeared in a Nespresso ad (for which he was reportedly paid $3 million) and also worked with TD Ameritrade.

How much is Matt Damon's real estate portfolio worth?

In early 2021, Damon listed his Los Angeles mansion for $21 million. The home is in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and boasts more than 13,500 square feet, seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a massage room (within the master suite), a pool, a game room, a wine cellar and a tasting room.

In 2014, Damon sold his Miami Beach waterfront mansion for $15.375 million. The Miami estate has seven bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, a wine cellar, office and home theater, among other super-luxe amenities, including a guesthouse. Damon bought his first piece of Miami property in 2005 for $10.3 million, then bought one of the adjoining properties that December for another $4.2 million.

Damon also owns a penthouse in Brooklyn in a building called The Standish, which also houses Emily Blunt and Krasinski. Damon's six-bedroom apartment cost him $16.475 million, making it one of the borough's priciest pads ever.

Next, Find Out Vin Diesel's Net Worth and How He Earned His Fast and Furious Fortune!