Mel Gibson’s $950 million wealth at stake as he faces divorce
April 16, 2009 on 3:23 pm | In Actors, Actress, Divorce and BreakUps | No Comments
Mel Gibson’s $950 million is at stake as Robyn Moore, his wife of 28 years, plans to divorce him.
The Oscar winner’s multimillion-dollar fortune is up for grabs including his $42 million Catholic church in California.
Although it has a congregation of less than 100 people, the Holy Family Catholic Church in Malibu is listed as being tax exempt.
Its assets include $500,000-worth of artwork.
In 2007 Gibson listed three major expenses connected with the church, including an architect and landscaper to help him keep building in and around the site.
He also paid a law firm $69,000 for its services.
Those expenses are offset by the massive $185 million that he earned in 2005 for the success of his smash hit The Passion of the Christ.
While the religious movie didn’t fare so well at the box office Gibson made his money on video and DVD sales.
It made $611,899,420 worldwide and $370,782,930 in the US alone, making it the highest-grossing movie in history.
In 2004, the same year the film was released, Gibson ranked number one on Forbes magazine’s Celebrity 100 List.
He was the highest paid celebrity that year with a reported $210 million salary from the film’s profits.
It was a good investment given that the actor spent $25 million of his own money to make the film.
At 56 and a father of seven, Gibson can currently command $25 million a movie.
A director and filmmaker he also has his own company called Icon Production.
An avid real estate investor, he has multiple properties in Malibu, Fiji and Costa Rica.
In December 2004 he sold his 300-acre ranch in Australia for a reported $6 million.
That month he bought Mago – a private island in Fiji – for an estimated $15 million.
He bought the 2,160-hectare island from a Japanese hotel chain.
Gibson plans to turn the Pacific paradise – which is home to 40 residents, mostly coconut farmers and their families – into his own personal retreat.
The South Pacific island boasts two lagoons and stunning white-sand beaches. The sale was finalised in March 2005.
In 2005 he sold his Montana ranch for an undisclosed multimillion-dollar sum.
In 2007 he bought a ranch in Costa Rica for $26 million.
He sold his Tudor estate in Connecticut for $40 million that same year.
In 2007 Gibson reportedly made a $6 million profit by selling a Malibu property for $30 million. He only had it for two years.