Cameron Diaz Net Worth (Money & Salary)

Cameron Diaz’s Net Worth and Salary: What Is It?

Born in California, Cameron Diaz is an accomplished model and actress boasting a net worth of $140 million. She rose to international fame in 1994 when she starred alongside Jim Carrey in “The Mask.” Since then, she has consistently maintained an A-list status, featuring in numerous films and making hundreds of millions of dollars purely from acting fees. With total box office revenue exceeding $7 billion, Cameron ranks as the fifth highest-grossing actress in the United States.

Initially starting her career as a model for brands like Calvin Klein and Levi’s, and gracing the cover of Seventeen Magazine, she later transitioned to acting. Following a brief exploration of the soft-core porn industry, she auditioned for a comedy role opposite then-rising star Jim Carrey. The film “The Mask,” in which she was ultimately cast, became one of that year’s largest box office successes, paving her path to stardom. The following years involved refining her acting skills through classes and smaller independent films. Her approach proved effective, as she returned to mainstream cinema as a more skilled actress with greater box office appeal. Since then, she has appeared in various notable films including “Feeling Minnesota,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Being John Malkovich,” the “Charlie’s Angels” series, “Vanilla Sky,” “Gangs of New York,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Bad Teacher,” and “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” among many others.

Early Life

Cameron Diaz was born on August 30, 1972, in San Diego, California, and grew up in Long Beach, California. She attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where she had Snoop Dogg as a classmate.

Characterizing her childhood as modest, Diaz notes that her family often collected soda cans to exchange for extra cash, as even $20 had significant value to them.

Cameron, strikingly blonde and tall, signed with Elite Model Management at the age of 16, quickly kickstarting her professional modeling career. Over her first five years in the industry, she secured numerous high-profile fashion campaigns and print jobs while living in various countries, including Japan, Australia, and Paris.

Success

At the age of 21, Diaz moved back to Southern California and, despite lacking acting experience, successfully auditioned for the leading female role opposite Jim Carrey in the 1994 film “The Mask.” Remarkably, she took her first acting class only after securing the role. The film proved to be a massive success, grossing over $340 million globally and transforming Cameron into an overnight sensation.

In the ensuing years, more film offers came her way, including the 1997 movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” The following year marked another milestone in her career with her lead performance in the comedy “There’s Something About Mary,” which grossed $369 million worldwide and earned Diaz her first Golden Globe nomination. This acclaim was soon followed by additional nominations for her performance in “Being John Malkovich,” a film that received widespread critical praise.

Diaz has appeared in numerous successful films, including “Charlie’s Angels,” which grossed $264 million globally, “Vanilla Sky,” for which she received four esteemed award nominations, and the Academy Award-winning “Gangs of New York.”

Additional films featuring Diaz are “In Her Shoes,” “The Holiday,” “What Happens in Vegas,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Knight and Day,” “The Green Hornet,” “Bad Teacher,” “Sex Tape,” “Annie,” among others.

In the Shrek franchise, Diaz lent her voice to the character of Princess Fiona, with the second installment, “Shrek 2,” earning $919 million globally.

Notable Salaries

From 1998 to 2011, during her career peak, Cameron amassed over $160 million in base film salaries. Presently, her base salary for leading roles starts at $10 million, with figures reaching as high as $20 million. For “There’s Something About Mary,” she received $2 million, $12 million for “Charlie’s Angels,” and $20 million for the sequel “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (directed by McG). She became the third actress ever to earn a movie paycheck exceeding $20 million, with her salary for “Gangs of New York” totaling $17.5 million.

Cameron’s earnings for the first “Shrek” film amounted to $3 million, while she received $10 million for the 2004 sequel.

Bad Teacher Paycheck

In 2011, for “Bad Teacher,” Cameron accepted a substantial pay cut to $1 million upfront in exchange for a significant percentage of the film’s backend revenue. The film ultimately grossed over $210 million worldwide, leading Cameron to a remarkable total of $42 million, ranking her among the 20 highest single-film earnings by an actor.

Retirement

After announcing her retirement from acting in 2014, Cameron maintained this decision until June 2022, when it was disclosed that she would return to star alongside Jamie Foxx in the forthcoming Netflix action-comedy “Back in Action.”

In 2009, Diaz was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal Life

Since 2015, Cameron has been married to Benji Madden, founder of Good Charlotte. Nicole Richie, married to Benji’s brother Joel since 2010, was responsible for their introduction. In December 2019, the couple welcomed a daughter through surrogacy.

Real Estate

Cameron owns and has previously owned several impressive properties throughout the US, primarily…

In Los Angeles, she acquired a property above the Sunset Strip in 2001 for $1.34 million, which was later sold to Ariana Grande in 2022 for $4.9 million. Diaz still possesses a much larger compound in Beverly Hills, bought in 2010 for $9.5 million from actress Candice Bergen. A few houses down, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden reside in a home that Nicole purchased for $6.7 million in 2015.

Cameron owned a loft in Greenwich Village, New York, for many years, which she sold in 2015 for $4 million. However, she still has a place to lay her head in NYC, thanks to a $9.5 million condo she acquired in Chelsea in 2013.

In Montecito, California, Diaz and Madden acquired an expansive 11,000-square-foot mansion in 2022 for $12.67 million.

In October 2020, Cameron and Benji invested $14.7 million in a new mansion in Beverly Hills. This 9,000-square-foot residence features seven bedrooms and ten bathrooms, situated on 1.7 acres within a gated community at the pinnacle of Beverly Hills. They have listed this property for sale in July 2024 for $17.8 million. Here is a video tour: