October 25, 2012
Despite rumors of massive debt when he died, Jackson is proving that he is still the king; his income from the grave proves it.
When it comes to dead celebrity earnings, it's hard to beat Michael Jackson. The pop singer, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, earned more than any living artist in the past 12 months: $145 million.
Dubbed ‘Music’s postmortem cash king,’ he has earned more than any single living artist since his death. Jackson continues to rake in revenues from the work of other artists (through his 50% stake in the Sony/ATV publishing catalog), his own material (the Mijac Music catalog), a Cirque du Soleil show (the Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour) and other sources. His total would be even higher if FORBES hadn’t credited the advance for the latter to last year’s $170 million total.