What is Keanu Reeves' Net Worth, Salary, and Career Earnings?
Keanu Reeves is an actor, musician, producer and philanthropist who has a net worth of $380 million. Keanu Reeves' first major role was in the 1986 Rob Lowe ice hockey film "Youngblood," in which he played a Québécois goalie. He soon moved to Los Angeles and scored a breakthrough role in 1986's "River's Edge." After that, Reeves worked steadily. There was "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and the sequel. There was "Point Break" – for which he won MTV's "Most Desirable Male" award in 1992, "My Own Private Idaho," "Speed," "A Walk in the Clouds," "The Devil's Advocate," "The Replacements," and then the pinnacle of his career so far… "The Matrix" and the "John Wick" franchises.
Here's a list of Keanu Reeves' biggest films by worldwide box office performance:
- Toy Story 4 (2019) – $1.073 billion (voice role)
- The Matrix Reloaded (2003) – $742 million
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) – $326 million
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003) – $427 million
- Speed (1994) – $350 million
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) – $233 million
- Constantine (2005) – $230 million
- The Devil's Advocate (1997) – $152 million
- Dracula (1992) – $215 million (supporting role)
- Something's Gotta Give (2003) – $266 million (supporting role)
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Early Life
Keanu Charles Reeves was born on September 2, 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon, to an English mother and a Hawaiian-American father. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father, a geologist who earned his GED while in prison in Hawaii for selling heroin at Hilo International Airport.
Reeves's father abandoned his family when Keanu was just three years old. Keanu spent his childhood moving around the world as his costume designer mother worked and married again and again. Stability wasn't all that present in Reeves's life as a child and teenager. Reeves lived in Sydney, Australia, and New York City for a while before his family settled in Toronto.
He attended four different high schools where he excelled as a hockey player. Reeves had dreams of playing professional hockey. He dropped out of high school before he graduated. A struggle with dyslexia made academics difficult. After performing in a school production of Romeo and Juliet and discovering his love of performance, Reeves left hockey and school to pursue a career in acting.
Early Career
Starting out with small roles on Canadian television, commercials, and various stage productions, Reeves first appeared on the big screen in 1986's Youngblood. He then landed various co-starring roles, including a bigger role in the critically acclaimed film River's Edge. Reeves achieved surprise box office success with the 1989 smash-hit Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which domestically grossed over $40 million. Reeves went on to star in a host of films, both major and independent, including the drama Point Break and the indie cult-hit My Own Private Idaho.
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Success
Reeves was propelled into A-list status with the success of the 1994 action flick Speed, which earned two Academy Awards and total gross revenue of $350.5 million internationally and domestically. Reeves experienced further success starring in The Matrix franchise, a trilogy of sci-fi action films with a total gross revenue of $1.6 billion. His work as Neo was well-received and praised, and the movies were immensely popular.
In 2014, Reeves landed a starring role as the title character in the action thriller "John Wick," in which he played a retired hitman. The movies were both acclaimed critically and box office smashes. He went on to reprise his role in two subsequent movies. His John Wick franchise has generated more than $500 million at the box office. As of this writing, Keanu's movies have grossed more than $4.6 billion at the worldwide box office after adjusting for inflation.
In 2019, Glasgow, Scotland, hosted "KeanuCon," Europe's first Keanu Reeves film festival. It was held over April 27th and 28th and featured nine of his movies over the two days.
In March 2023, Reeves reprised his hitman role in "John Wick: Chapter 4," and there have been talks about making a fifth film in the series. Reeves has also co-written a comic book series, "BRZRKR," and is expected to star in a film adaptation of it. He's set to return to the "Cyberpunk 2077" video game universe as Johnny Silverhand in the expansion "Phantom Liberty."
Keanu Reeves Earnings from The Matrix
Keanu landed the role of Neo in The Matrix after Will Smith turned down the part. His upfront salary was to be $10 million. He also was given a chunk of the backend, which, thanks to the movie's surprise success, resulted in total earnings of $35 million for the first movie. That's the same as around $53 million after inflation. In August 2019, the fourth Matrix installment was announced by Warner Bros.
With DVD sales (The Matrix was one of the best-selling DVDs of all time) plus the second and third movie's enormous box office success, Keanu's backend bonuses would eventually make him the highest-paid actor of all time for a single franchise. Keanu earned at least $120 million in bonuses from the second and third movies. His total earnings from The Matrix, through all sources, tops $200 million as of this writing.
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Keanu Reeves Salary Highlights
Keanu earned just $3000 for his film debut in 1986's Youngblood. He earned $95,000 for his role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He earned $1.2 million for 1994's Speed. That's the same as around $2 million after adjusting for inflation. He turned down $11 million to appear in the Speed sequel. He said he was unavailable because he was touring with his band. He earned $2 million for Johnny Mnemonic and $8 million for The Devil's Advocate. Reeves earned a $15 million salary for "John Wick: Chapter 4" in 2023.
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Jennifer Syme, who was Reeves' girlfriend throughout the '90s, gave birth to their stillborn daughter, Ava Archer Syme-Reeves, on December 24, 1999. The grief affected their relationship, and they split several weeks later. In April 2001, Syme was involved in a car accident, and she died on impact. Reeves was scheduled at the time to begin shooting The Matrix sequels back-to-back and sought time to deal with the incident before he began filming. In 2008, he dated China Chow. He has never been married and is notoriously tight-lipped about his love life. He has been romantically linked to longtime friend and filmmaker Brenda Davis and is the godfather to her child. In November 2019, Reeves and Alexandra Grant went public with their relationship.
Reeves is not religious but has an interest in Buddhism and describes himself as spiritual.
Two stalkers trespassed Keanu's home in the Hollywood Hills in 2014. The first happened on September 12, when he awoke to a stalker in his library who told him she was there to meet him. He called the police after calmly talking to her. Three days later, a second stalker broke into his home through a gate that was left unlocked by Reeves' cleaners. The stalker undressed and took a shower in his bathroom before swimming nude in his pool. Reeves was not at home at the time, but the cleaning crew alerted the police, and the stalker was removed.
Reeves has a cancer charity he set up but chose not to attach his name to it. He supports PETA, Stand Up to Cancer, and the SickKids Foundation. After filming "John Wick: Chapter 4," Reeves auctioned off a signed training uniform to raise money for St. Jude.
As far as other ventures outside of acting, Reeves played bass guitar for the band Dogstar for many years in the '90s. Additionally, he is an avid motorcyclist and co-founded a company that builds custom motorcycles, Arch Motorcycle Company. He also co-founded a production company called Company Films. Reeves is the founder of a small press called X Artists' Books. He has written two books, "Ode to Happiness" and "Shadows."
