Did His Career Scandals Cost Him To Lose Work?
Highlights
- Woody Allen has a net worth of $140 million, amassed from his successful career as a comedic film director spanning six decades.
- Despite setbacks and scandals, Allen has remained one of Hollywood's richest filmmakers and continues to make movies.
- Allen's controversies, including allegations of sexual abuse, have polarized Hollywood, with some actors defending him and others regretting working with him.
Woody Allen has amassed an enormous net worth in his decades as one of America's most beloved comedic film directors. On cable TV and home streaming services, Woody Allen movies of the 1970s and '80s remain classics among cinephiles of multiple generations.
Amid setbacks and scandals, Allen has weathered the blows and emerged as one of Hollywood's richest filmmakers.
What Is Woody Allen's Net Worth?
Allen is worth more than $100 million
Woody Allen has an estimated net worth of $140 million. He built his fortune on a film discography that spans six decades.
Allen made his film debut with the 1965 screwball comedy What's New Pussycat? co-starring Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress. The film grossed $18.8 million while its Tom Jones-sung theme song garnered an Oscar nomination for its writers, Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The bespectacled newcomer re-teamed with Sellers and Andress in the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale.
In 1969, Allen began his long run of acting-directing vehicles with Take the Money and Run, a crime comedy that earned the 34-year-old two Golden Laurel nominations.
He catapulted to comedic stardom with his 1971–73 capers Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), and Sleeper, which each earned eight figures on $2 million budgets.
After the 1975 period comedy Love and Death, Allen entered his most acclaimed period with Annie Hall, the 1977 dramedy that won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. He delved into serious storytelling with the 1978 drama Interiors and the 1979 noire dramedy Manhattan. His '70s films co-starred his then-partner and muse, Diane Keaton.
The early '80s was a fall-back period for Woody, marked by the lukewarm reception to his 1980–82 films Stardust Memories and A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.
Allen regained ground with the 1984–85 cult films Broadway Danny Rose and The Purple Rose of Cairo, both acclaimed efforts that culminated in the 1986 box office smash Hannah and Her Sisters, which grossed $40.1 million on a budget of $6 million.
He rounded out the decade with the 1987–89 hits Radio Days, New York Stories, and Crimes and Misdemeanors, all co-starring his then-partner Mia Farrow.
Allen's '90s hits include the '20s-period caper Bullets Over Broadway and the 1995 dramedy Mighty Aphrodite, which won newcomer Mira Sorvino an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
In the 2000s, Allen began a working relationship with Scarlett Johansson, the star of his 2005–06 films Match Point and Scoop. The former grossed $85.3 million on a budget of $15 million.
Have Woody Allen's Scandals Ruined His Legacy?
Woody Allen's scandals impacted his career
In August 1992, news surfaced that Allen was having an affair with Farrow's 21-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. He and Farrow ended their thirteen-year association amid a public scandal that stole headlines from that summer's Republican National Convention.
Farrow adopted Soon-Yi in 1976 when she was married to composer André Previn. The couple adopted four children and had three biological sons.
After Farrow's divorce, she started a relationship with Allen, who took a paternal role in Soon-Yi's life when she was a teenager. By the fall of 1991, he became intimate with the now-adult South Korean adoptee.
The scandal broke after Farrow discovered nudes of Soon-Yi in Allen's possession. Despite their public image as a couple up until the scandal, Allen and Farrow ended their romance in late 1987 after the birth of their biological son, Satchell Ronan.
The ensuing flurry greeted Allen's 1992 film Husbands and Wives, in which Woody and Mia play a married couple who divorce after witnessing the marital woes of their two best friends (a couple who ultimately reconcile). In a classic case of life imitating art, this was their final film together.
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In 2017, controversies resurfaced after Dylan Farrow (Woody and Mia's adopted daughter) made allegations of sexual abuse against Allen. Soon-Yi and Mia's estranged adopted son, Moses Farrow, countered that Mia was the abusive parent and that she coerced her children against Allen.
The controversy has polarized Hollywood. Scarlett Johansson has spoken positively about Woody Allen throughout the years. Other stars, like Kate Winslet and Drew Barrymore, regret working with Woody Allen.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem has defended Woody Allen, calling the allegations "gossip." Bardem, who met his wife Penélope Cruz on the set of Allen's 2008 romcom Vicky Cristina Barcelona, told The Guardian that it's dangerous to point fingers at someone whose alleged guilt "hasn’t been legally proven."
With a box office gross of $96 million, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is Allen's third-highest-grossing film behind Midnight in Paris ($154 million) and Blue Jasmine ($99 million).
Woody Allen Is Still Making Movies
Allen lost some projects but continues to work in Hollywood
In 2016, Allen directed the blockbuster romcom Café Society co-starring Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, and Blake Lively. This was Allen's first film with Amazon Studios, which severed ties with the legend after the Dylan controversy broke.
Consequently, Allen's 2019 film A Rainy Day in New York (originally slated for Amazon distribution) struggled at the US box office, despite its popularity overseas.
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Allen's next film, 2020's Rifkin's Festival, grossed $2.3 million on its limited release in select European territories.
In 2023, Woody Allen wrote and produced the French romcom Coup de Chance, which grossed $6.3 million in Europe and garnered an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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