Credit: @michaelfmoore
One of the most commonly asked questions about Michael Moore has to do with his net worth. The controversial filmmaker often brings his own personal opinions into his work, and it’s not always well-received. Regardless, his films do well, his fans eagerly anticipate his work, and he has a substantial net worth to prove it. Michael Moore’s net worth is currently estimated at around $30 million, and he’s only earning more. How did Michael Moore’s net worth grow so big?
Michael Moore’s Childhood Was Unremarkable
While we cannot say whether he enjoyed his childhood or found it mundane, there was nothing remarkable about it. He grew up in the small town of Flint, Michigan, where his father worked in the automotive assembly line industry. His mother worked as a secretary. Life was average for Moore. He was a Boy Scout – who later became an Eagle Scout. Moore also spent his high school years heavily involved in his school clubs. He was part of both the drama club and the debate team.
When Michael Moore turned 18, however, his upbringing changed. He was no longer the child being raised by automotive workers like most kids in his area. He was the youngest member of the Davison School Board ever elected. More specifically, he was the youngest person in any form of office in the entire country. He would try to go to college, but he’d last only a year at the University of Michigan-Flint before leaving. During his first and only year in college, he wrote for the school paper, and that would go on to shape some of his decisions.
Founding His First Company
When Michael Moore was 22, he founded his first company. It was a weekly magazine. He named it the Flint Voice, but he later changed the name to The Michigan Voice. You might wonder how a young 20-something from an average upbringing in Flint, Michigan, garnered the funds to begin a newspaper, and we’ll tell you. Michael Moore does not stop at anything. He is the type of man who knows that the worst they can tell you is no, and he always asks.
Credit: @michaelfmoore
Moore snuck backstage at a Harry Chapin concert. He asked the pop star to perform a benefit concert in which he would donate all of the proceeds to Moore to begin his paper. Shockingly, Chapin was fine with it, and he performed annually for the young entrepreneur. The magazine ran for approximately 10 years before investors shut it down. By then, Moore was editing a substantially left-wing liberal political magazine called Mother Jones, and he left for California – or bluer waters, if you will.
It Was His Firing That Led to His First Film
Moore was fired from Mother Jones after he refused to run an article he didn’t believe was accurate, as well as their refusal to allow him to write about plant closings in Michigan. General Motors was a major industry player in Michigan, and the company provided most of the jobs for most people living there. When the magazine refused to allow him to run the story he wanted, he put another writer – and laid-off GM employee – on the cover and ran with it. He was subsequently fired, and then he sued the magazine. His settlement was around $58K, and that’s the money he put into his first movie.
It was 1989, and he made Roger & Me, a documentary about the GM plant closings. Three years later, he followed that up with his second film, Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint. From there, he was rolling. By 1995, he released Canadian Bacon – his first work of fiction. He’d go on to make movies about the Columbine school shooting as well as the infamous Fahrenheit 9/11. He earned an Academy Award for this one.
Credit: @michaelfmoore
Michael Moore’s Controversies
As it stands, the award-winning filmmaker is often thought of as controversial. There are some who believe that his stance in making only exceptionally liberal films and refusing to see anything from any other perspective has grown tired, old, and overdone. His controversial film, Planet of Humans, was removed from YouTube following copyright infringement and complaints. Environmentalist scientists all over have called the film inaccurate, citing that it is misleading, makes false claims, and is baseless. Additionally, Variety believes that Moore’s audience is too old now to care about his antics.
Regardless, however, Michael Moore’s net worth is an estimated $30 million, which provides him the freedom to do whatever he wants. We don’t know what he’s working on right now, but we can rest assured he’s likely working on something for the future. He’s been making movies since the 80s, so there’s no reason to assume he’s ready to stop now.