What is David Copperfield's Net Worth and Career Earnings?
David Copperfield is an American illusionist who has a net worth of $1 billion. David is BY FAR the richest magician on the planet. He earns $40 – $60 million per year thanks largely to the roughly 515 shows he performs each year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
He is the most commercially successful magician of all time. Though his magic shows are the most profitable of all time, impressively, David Copperfield's billion dollar net worth doesn't come from illusions alone. Thanks to incredibly shrewd investments and acquisitions, David has managed to build an incredibly valuable financial empire that includes real estate, restaurants, merchandise and even magic memorabilia! His Las Vegas shows and world tours have sold more than 40 million tickets and grossed more than $4 billion in revenue. There are as many as three shows each day, seven days a week, 42 weeks a year, in a theatre dedicated to David himself. Ticket sales gross roughly $50 million each year and that doesn't include merchandising, which, by the way, Copperfield completely controls.
He has sold more tickets than any other solo performer in history, earning him one of his 11 Guinness World Records. To put that in perspective, David Copperfield, a magician, has sold more tickets than Madonna, Justin Bieber, Elvis Presley, and even Michael Jackson. His 1996 show, Dreams and Nightmares, still holds the record for the most Broadway tickets sold in a week.
Copperfield has spent more than four decades performing startling magic tricks, guest spots, and even his own television specials where he pulled off incredible feats of magic such as making the Statue of Liberty disappear and walking through the Great Wall of China. He also opened the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is dedicated to preserving the history and art of magic, and holds the world's largest magical artifact collection.
Early Life
David Copperfield was born David Seth Kotkin on September 16, 1956, in Metuchen, New Jersey. He grew up in a Jewish household with mother Rebecca (an insurance adjuster) and father Hyman (owner of a men's haberdashery called Korby's). When he was 3 or 4 years old, David started learning magic and ventriloquism at Warren, New Jersey's Camp Harmony, and at age 10, he began performing magic around his neighborhood as "Davino the Boy Magician." At 12 years old, he earned the honor of becoming the youngest person to ever be admitted to the Society of American Magicians, and four years later, he began teaching a magic course at New York University. After graduating from Metuchen High School, Copperfield enrolled at Fordham University, but he dropped out after three weeks to star in a Chicago production of the musical "The Magic Man" and began using the stage name "David Copperfield."
Career
David created the stage show "Magic of David Copperfield" at age 19 and performed it at Honolulu's Pagoda Hotel. In 1977, he hosted the ABC special "The Magic of ABC," and CBS aired several "The Magic of David Copperfield" specials from 1978 to 2001. In 1980, Copperfield played The Magician in the horror film "Terror Train," and three years later, he appeared to make the Statue of Liberty vanish and reappear in front of a live audience as a statement on "how precious liberty is and how easily it can be lost." In 1996, David collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola, Eiko Ishioka, and David Ives for his Broadway show, "Dreams & Nightmares," and Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, and other popular authors for the fiction anthology "David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible," which was followed by "David Copperfield's Beyond Imagination" in 1997.
In 2001, Copperfield performed at a UNICEF benefit at the White House, and the following year, he guest-starred on the medical sitcom "Scrubs." In 2011, David worked on "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," appearing alongside Steve Carell and Jim Carrey and developing illusions for the film, and he was featured on the OWN-TV network's "Oprah's Next Chapter" series in 2012. He played himself on the CBS series "The Crazy Ones" in 2014 and the HBO mockumentary "7 Days in Hell" in 2015, and he has lent his voice to two episodes of "The Simpsons." Copperfield also co-produced the 2016 film "Now You See Me 2" and he has directed and produced several of his specials.
(Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)
Personal Life
David was in a relationship with German supermodel Claudia Schiffer from 1993 to 1999; they became engaged in 1994, and Claudia would sometimes act as his assistant during illusions. Copperfield began dating French model Chloe Gosselin in 2006, and they welcomed daughter Sky in February 2010. He also has reportedly had two children, Dylan and Audrey, with Czech model Marie Petlickova. In 2007, Lacey L. Carroll accused David of sexual assault, but no charges were ever brought. In 2018, he was accused of drugging and assaulting a 17-year-old model three decades earlier. In 1982, Copperfield founded a rehabilitation program called Project Magic, which "uses magic as a form of therapy for people with physical, psychological, and social disabilities."
Claudia Schiffer and David Copperfield in 1993 (Photos by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
Magic Memorabilia & Art Collection
David owns the world's largest collection of magic memorabilia. The collection contains more than 150,000 items and books with especially valuable items from Harry Houdini, Georges Melies, and the father of modern magic, Robert Houdin. The collection is housed in a 40,000 square foot warehouse located several miles off the Las Vegas Strip. The collection is irreplaceable and priceless. It is also open only to fellow magicians, historians, academics, and actors researching roles. He rarely opens the collection to a member of the media.
Copperfield's International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts sounds like something out of the Harry Potter universe. His collection is truly priceless, but to put some numbers on it, he's spent upwards of $200 million to assemble everything. That $200 million includes a monumental restoration process and safety precautions such as fireproofing the warehouse. Analysts have valued the collection at a mind-boggling $500 million. That $500 million is assuming you can even put a price on items such as Harry Houdini's straight jacket, artifacts from 19th century magicians, and the Best Director Oscar for Casablanca.
The collection began in 1991 when Copperfield purchased the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts for $2.2 million at a savings-and-loan bailout auction. The key to this acquisition was that it was the largest collection of Houdini memorabilia available. Copperfield's collection contains such priceless artifacts as Houdini's Water Torture Cabinet, the straight jacket he escaped from, the very first "origami" box a "lovely assistant" was put into and cut into pieces, and more. The collection and hushed atmosphere of the warehouse demands respect.
Copperfield is by far the most dominant collector of magic memorabilia. But it isn't just the work of others or toys from past generations, his museum is also an archive of his own work. Housed within is every press clipping, trick, prop, and costume David Copperfield has ever worn in a show. These account for about 62,000 items in the warehouse. There are posters on every wall, from every generation, including the sole surviving poster of Herrmann the Great, a French magician practicing in the latter half of the 19th century. That poster alone is valued at more than $60,000.
Copperfield owns the original Howdy Doody dolls and Shari Lewis' Lamb Chop puppet, which hang from the wall, grinning maniacally and staring you down. Robert Houdin's mystery clocks and automatons dating back to the late 19th century are also housed in Copperfield's collection, including the Singing Lesson – an over 100-year old machine valued at $1 million that teaches a robotic bird how to sing.
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images
Awards and Achievements
David has been the recipient of 21 Emmy Awards, been named Magician of the Century, Magician of the Millennium, and King of Magic, received the prestigious U.S. Library of Congress' Living Legend Award, and was inducted into NYC's Ride of Fame. Copperfield was knighted by the French government, becoming the first magician to receive the Chevalier of Arts and Letters, and in 1995, he received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame awarded to a living magician. David has set 11 Guinness World Records, such as "Most magic shows performed in a year," "Largest illusion ever staged," and "Most tickets sold worldwide by a solo entertainer."
David Copperfield – Billionaire Magician / Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
Real Estate
David Copperfield's real estate portfolio alone is worth $200-300 million.
In Las Vegas, Copperfield lives in a penthouse provided to him by the MGM. He also has a mansion just off the strip. Outside of Vegas, David owns a four-story penthouse in New York City.
The crown jewel of his real estate portfolio can be found in the Bahamas, where David owns 11 absolutely amazing private islands. Copperfield named his archipelago the Islands of Copperfield Bay. He began buying them in the early 2000s, after establishing his interest in the largest and most developed of the islands – Musha Cay. This 150-acre island set Copperfield back $55 million in 2006.
(via Christina Hawkins and flickr)
The resort on Musha Cay follows old English colonial-style architecture, with classic looks that fit perfectly into the tropical location. There is a selection of rooms for guests, starting with a 10,000 square foot manor house at the top of the hill, offering 360 degree views. There is also two small guest villas with their own private hot tubs and beaches, a large 5 bedroom beachfront villa and a secluded thatched-roof beach house to pick from. There is also "The Landing" which is the social area, including a central dining room, bar, lounge, lobby, wine cellar and games room.
The battle to buy the land lasted four years. Over the next decade, Copperfield continued to buy up the 10 neighboring islands, then sunk $40 million and five years into renovations to build his own version of fantasy island complete with a staff of 30, a vanishing drive-in movie theater on the beach, and furniture flown in from all over the world – including Harry Houdini's pool table.
On any island in Copperfield Bay, you'll find white "sugar" sand beaches, exotic plant life and crystal-clear turquoise water. Like with Richard Branson's Necker Island, David Copperfield rents the whole resort out to a group when he isn't using it personally. Completely inclusive, the resort rents for between $37,000-$50,000 per night, for up to 24 guests. This feature attracts a host of celebrity guests, such as Oprah Winfrey, John Travolta and Jim Carrey. Google founder Sergey Brin was also married here in 2007.
David Copperfield's Midtown Manhattan penthouse is located just south of Central Park. The home is 10,000 square feet across four floors with an additional 6,000 square feet of terraces and rooftop gardens. The home has 18 rooms and a glass-enclosed indoor lap pool. In 1997, the penthouse cost Copperfield $7.4 million. Today, it is valued at more than $60 million when compared to comparable properties in the neighborhood. Copperfield's Manhattan penthouse also houses the illusionist's 300 antique arcade games and life-sized antique mannequins, which he has hanging suspended from the living room walls.
