Bill Murray was questioned recently about his memories of filming the latest Ghostbusters movie, Frozen Empire, and the first thing he mentioned was how painful it was to carry his ghostbusting bag about the set.
The 73-year-old said on CBS Mornings, “You know, wearing a pack a long time ago was miserable, wearing one now is like torture.” On the plus side, Bill Murray’s Ghostbusters franchise has proven to be a very profitable endeavor for him; in fact, it’s likely the most financially rewarding in his almost 50-year career, which has included both highs and lows for many actors.
Bill Murray discovered acting by chance and quickly shown his exceptional talent. In the early 1970s, he began his career as a stand-up comedian, touring the US circuit and landing his first gig on the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Soon after, his skits and hosting roles on Saturday Night Live made him a household name.
Since then, he has dabbled in a variety of endeavors: writing, producing, voice acting, and occasionally making an appearance in commercials. He has done so with the same zeal—or lack thereof—that he exhibited in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation as the stone-faced, Suntory-drinking Bob Harris, lost and alone in Shinjuku.
Bill Murray supposedly received $1 million for his part in the movie, which is a considerable sum given its meager $1 million shoestring budget. The amount Bill Murray would have been paid for making his debut appearance in a national commercial, a 60-second Jeep spot that played during prime time during the 2020 Super Bowl, is unknown.
During a pause in the filming, he commented to the camera, “This is my first commercial.” “I’m happy I did it with Jeep. Additionally, I’m relieved that this is my final advertisement! Since the beginning of the 1980s, when his acting career took off.
COMPLETE FILMOGRAPHY OF BILL MURRAY
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
Meatballs (1979)
Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979)
Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle (1979)
Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)
Caddyshack (1980)
Loose Shoes (1980)
Stripes (1981)
Tootsie (1982)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Nothing Lasts Forever (1984)
B.C. Rock (1984)
The Razor’s Edge (1984)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
She’s Having a Baby (1988)
Scrooged (1988)
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Quick Change (1990)
What About Bob? (1991)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Mad Dog and Glory (1993)
Ed Wood (1994)
Kingpin (1996)
Larger than Life (1996)
Space Jam (1996)
The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
Wild Things (1998)
With Friends Like These… (1998)
Rushmore (1998)
Cradle Will Rock (1999)
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Hamlet (2000)
Osmosis Jones (2001)
Speaking of Sex (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
Garfield: The Movie (2004)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Broken Flowers (2005)
The Lost City (2005)
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Get Smart (2008)
City of Ember (2008)
The Limits of Control (2009)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Zombieland (2009)
Get Low (2010)
Passion Play (2011)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012)
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)
The Monuments Men (2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
St. Vincent (2014)
Dumb and Dumber To (2014)
Aloha (2015)
Rock the Kasbah (2015)
The Jungle Book (2016)
Ghostbusters Answer the Call (2016)
Isle of Dogs (2018)
For the Fun of the Game (2018)
The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
On the Rocks (2020)
The French Dispatch (2021)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Murray’s Net Worth
Bill Murray has received several large paychecks. Playing Dr. Peter Venkman in the 1984 box office hit Ghostbusters was one of his biggest money makers; some reports put his take home pay at $6 million, while others cite much higher figures because co-stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis negotiated a percentage of the film’s gross box office receipts, which currently stand at an impressive $296.5 million.
We know who to call – Bill Murray and Ray Parker Jr. have joined the carpet. #Ghostbusters pic.twitter.com/rGe6Pmj1CI
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) March 15, 2024
Bill Murray made over $125 million from the first two Ghostbusters films and an additional $15 million for his role in Ghostbusters Afterlife, which is more than twice the amount he was paid for Scrooged, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The actor, who was born in Illinois, is unique in that he has accepted independent project roles that pay less throughout his career.
Among his non-mainstream performances were that of the funeral parlor owner in Aaron Schneider’s indie debut film Get Low (2009) and in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005).
Bill Murray‘s net worth is estimated by Celebrity Net Worth to be around $180 million. He has reinvested some of this money into a real estate portfolio, the hospitality industry (his golf-themed Caddyshack restaurants in St Augustine and Rosemont, along with related merchandise), stocks, bonds, and he continues to support several baseball teams in Illinois, including the Joliet Slammers.
Not bad at all for an artist who freely acknowledges that he can be a pretty awkward guy to work with and who has experienced long-running conflicts with a number of his colleagues in the industry—according to Geena Davis, their relationship is still intact. In 2010, he commented, “People say I’m difficult, and sometimes that’s a badge of honor.”
“At work, everything I don’t want to do is just problems for me. I also let go of my agents. I never spoke to them again after saying I never wanted to. I was able to save money, but most importantly, the infuriating phone calls ceased.
