What is Frank Darabont's net worth?
Frank Darabont is a Hungarian-American director, producer, and writer who has a net worth of $100 million. Over a multi-decade career, Frank Darabont has written and/or directed dozens of extremely popular films. He has directed several film adaptations of Stephen King novellas, including "The Shawshank Redemption," and "The Green Mile."
Frank also co-created and developed the hit television show "The Walking Dead" for AMC. He also directed the show's pilot episode. As we detail later in this article, Frank's relationship with AMC soured very early on, and he was fired in 2011. This led to a royalty lawsuit that dragged on for a decade and ultimately resulted in AMC paying Darabont and his talent agency, CAA, a $200 million settlement.
Early Life
Frank Árpád Darabont was born on January 28, 1959, in a refugee camp in Montbeliard, France. His parents had fled Hungary in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution. He fled with five brothers, four sisters, and three cousins.
When he was an infant, the family moved to the United States, so Frank grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles. After seeing George Lucas' film "THX 1138", he decided to pursue a film career and began focusing on his goal immediately after graduating from Hollywood High School.
Career
He began his film career as a production assistant on projects such as "Hell Night," "The Seduction," and "Trancers."
He began to gain wider recognition in the film community after his short, "The Woman in the Room," which was adapted from a Stephen King short story. The film was a semi-finalist list for the Oscars in 1983.
Katy Winn/Getty Images
Stephen King "Dollar Baby"
In 1977, Stephen King made the decision to allow select film students to pay just $1 for the rights to adapt his short stories into films. When Frank was a 20-year-old film student, he was selected as a "Dollar Baby" to adapt King's short "The Woman in the Room." Frank's film version was a semi-finalist for Academy Award consideration in 1983.
Frank's association with Stephen King would lead to a number of massive film successes. In the late 1980s, Frank paid Stephen $5,000 for the film rights to his novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption." His screenplay version of the novella was a hot commodity in Hollywood in the early 1990s. At one point, Rob Reiner and his company Castle Rock (which is named after a fictional setting used in several Stephen King's books) was so eager to acquire the rights to the script that they offered Darabont $3-4 million. A huge sum for a still-unknown writer. There was a catch. Reiner wanted to direct. As part of the multi-million-dollar offer, Darabont would have been guaranteed to direct a future Castle Rock movie. He declined. He ultimately accepted a much lower offer that allowed him to direct.
Frank would go on to write and direct "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and "The Mist," which were all Stephen King adaptions. "The Shawshank Redemption" is considered, by some, the best movie of all time.
Shawshank was not a hit in its original theatrical run. In fact, it was considered a huge BOMB at first. Within two months of its release, the movie had grossed $16 million off its production budget of $25 million. After it received seven Oscar nominations (eventually losing all seven, mostly to "Forrest Gump), Shawshank's popularity began to pick up steam. A re-release quickly grossed another $10 million. To date, the film has grossed $80 million at the worldwide box office alone. More importantly, it has become one of the most popular films on cable, VHS, DVD, and streaming. Ted Turner's TNT acquired Castle Rock in 1993. In 1997, TNT acquired the cable-broadcast rights to the film, and soon thereafter, it was shown around the clock as the anchor of the network's "New Classics" film campaign. To date, Shawshank has grossed over $1 billion between rentals, VHS, DVD, cable-broadcast and streaming sales.
Stephen never actually cashed the $5,000 check Darbont paid him for Shawshank's film rights. Years after it became a huge success, King framed the check and sent it to Darabont as a gift with a note inscribed:
"In case you ever need bail money. Love Steve."
(Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)
The Walking Dead
In 2010, Frank created and developed the "The Walking Dead" for AMC. The show was based on Robert Kirkman's comic book of the same name. He also served as a director, writer, and producer, primarily in the first season. He directed the pilot episode.
AMC Settlement
In July 2011, Frank was fired from his position as showrunner. AMC initially suggested he was fired for being unable to adjust to the fast-paced television production schedule. Darabont and his talent agency, CAA, sued AMC, initially seeking $280 million in unpaid profits.
In July 2021, exactly ten years after being fired, Frank Darabont and CAA won a $200 million settlement from AMC. Darabont and CAA will also receive royalty payments from the show going forward. Of the $200 million, approximately $143 million went to settle the suit and acquire Darabon's IP rights, and $57 million repaid the portion of profits he should have received according to the original deal.
