What is Steven Soderbergh's Net Worth?
Steven Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and film director who has a net worth of $80 million. Steven Soderbergh burst onto the scene with his debut feature "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and helped kickstart the independent film movement of the 1990s.
Soderbergh has directed numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including "Out of Sight," "Erin Brockovich," and "Traffic," the latter two earning him Oscar nominations for Best Director in the same year, with "Traffic" securing his win. He's also known for the "Ocean's" trilogy, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Throughout his career, Soderbergh has experimented with different storytelling techniques, cinematography, and distribution methods. He's worked in television, directing series like "The Knick," and has explored digital filmmaking and unconventional release strategies.
Early Life
Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963, in Atlanta, Georgia. His family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, when he was a child for his father's job as a college professor and administrator. From there, the Soderberghs moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when his dad was made the Dean of Education at LSU. Soderbergh started making films as a teenager with his Super 8 and 16-millimeter cameras. After graduating from high school in Baton Rouge, Soderbergh moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a filmmaker.
Career
In his first job in Los Angeles, he worked as a game show composer and cue cardholder. Before long, he found work as a freelance film editor. In 1985, he directed the concert video for the rock band Yes "Yes 9012 Live" for which Soderbergh was nominated for a Grammy. In the mid-to-late 1980s, he returned to Baton Rouge and wrote the screenplay for "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" on a legal notepad during his eight-day cross-country drive. He shot the film starring James Spader and Andie MacDowell, and it was released in 1989. He submitted the film to the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. The independent film was a global success. "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" kicked off the Independent Cinema movement of the 1990s. Soderbergh was 26, the second youngest director to win the top award at Cannes.
Throughout the early-to-mid 1990s, Soderbergh directed a number of critical and commercial flops, including 1991's "Kafka" starring Jeremy Irons, 1993's "King of the Hill," which he also wrote and starred Jesse Bradford, 1995's remake of the 1949 film noir "Criss Cross," called "The Underneath" starring Peter Gallagher, and 1996's "Schizopolis." Things started to turn around for Soderbergh when he took on 1998's "Out of Sight," the adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel. The film was a moderate box office success, but critics loved it. The following year, he directed "The Limey."
Then, in 2000, Soderbergh took on "Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts. That same year, he released "Traffic." Both films garnered him Academy Award nominations for Best Director. He won the Oscar for "Traffic." Soderbergh next took on the reboot of the 1960s Rat Pack film "Ocean's 11." The film was a critical and commercial success and spawned a number of sequels, which Soderbergh also directed. In 2002, he directed "Full Frontal," starring Julia Roberts. The film was shot in a style that blurs the lines of reality and fantasy.
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During the 2000s, Soderbergh directed a number of films, including 2002's "Solaris," 2006's "The Good German," 2009's "The Girlfriend Experience," 2011's "Contagion," 2012's "Magic Mike," 2013's "Behind the Candelabra," 2017's "Lucky Logan," and 2019's "The Laundromat," to name just a handful of Soderbergh's directing credits.
"Let Them All Talk" is a comedy directed by Soderberg and scheduled for release on HBO Max in 2020. It stars Meryl Streep.
Soderbergh also produced the Gary Ross film "Pleasantville." He's made forays into television as well, most notably with 2014-2015's "The Knick" and 2017-2018's "Mosaic."
Soderbergh has a habit of working with the same actors over and over again, including Julia Robers, Catherine Zeta-Jones, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Topher Grace.
In January 2020, Soderbergh inked a three-year deal with Warner Media to create content for HBO and its new streaming entity, HBO Max. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it is thought to be quite sizeable. As part of the deal, Soderbergh will create both mainstream and more niche content.
In April 2020, the Directors Guild of America announced that Steven Soderbergh will head a DGA committee to address getting the film industry back to work. Soderbergh is a former DGA National President.
In May 2020, GQ proclaimed Soderbergh "the only guy doing quarantine right" because he wrote three new screenplays while in lockdown for the first six weeks. One is a rewrite, one of them is an original, and one is an adaptation of a novel. Reportedly, the sequel to his breakout 1989 hit "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" is one of them.
Personal Life
Steven Soderbergh is married to former entertainment journalist Jules Asner, whom he often credits with influencing his female characters.
He has a daughter with first wife, actress Betsy Brantley. He also has a daughter with an Australian woman named Frances Anderson.
In the fall of 2019, Soderbergh commented on the state of Hollywood, saying: "It's not crooked, it's the most transparent industry going…" His reasoning is because Hollywood is completely unionized, its hard to cheat.
Real Estate
In 2015, Soderbergh paid $8.5 million for a duplex in NYC's Tribeca neighborhood. The 3,100-square-foot unit has three bedrooms and a patio. He listed this property for sale in September 2024 for $9.4 million.
In 2005, Soderbergh bought a $2.15 million, 2,832 square foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood.
In 2017, Soderbergh sold his full-floor apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. He listed the home for $5 million in 2014 and sold it for $4.85 million. The three-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot loft features an open living and dining space. There's a media room next to the master suite. Speaking of the master suite, it features a spa-like bathroom with a steam shower and Zuma soaking tub.
