What Is Shane Black’s Net Worth?

What is veteran writer/director Shane Black’s net worth? Shane Black’s talent as a screenwriter was evident from an early point and he was only in his early 20’s when he penned Shadow Company, a horror/action script about undead Vietnam soldiers returning to life to terrorize a small town. John Carpenter was once set to direct this script with Walter Hill producing, but while it was ultimately unmade it got Black major attention. In addition to co-writing cult classic The Monster Squad with partner Fred Dekker, his script for Lethal Weapon made him a hot commodity with studios. This screenplay was an irresistible blend of action and comedy and the resulting film was a huge success.

While Shane Black would write a draft for Lethal Weapon 2, his script was much darker and ended with Riggs dying of his wounds. Black still considers his Lethal Weapon 2 screenplay his best work but his story was heavily rewritten. Black bounced back with buddy comedy The Last Boy Scout starring Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans. While he was well-compensated for his previous work, this script netted him an impressive $1.75 million. Shane Black also featured in acting roles in movies like Dead Heat and RoboCop 3 – directed by Dekker – during this period, and was he brought on to rewrite the script for meta-action comedy Last Action Hero. He also earned a record-breaking $4 million for his The Long Kiss Goodnight, though this 1996 film was a box-office dud.

Shane Black took a noticeable gap between The Long Kiss Goodnight and 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was also his directorial debut. This noir detective story/comedy starred Robert Downey, Jr, and Val Kilmer and while it didn’t do great business, it received great reviews and convinced Jon Favreau to cast Downey, Jr for Iron Man – history knows how that panned out. Given that Shane Black was once the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, its little surprise Celebrity Net Worth estimates him to be worth $16 million.

Shane Black’s next major project was Iron Man 3, which reunited him with Downey, Jr. This sequel would prove divisive because while it received praise for its portrayal of Tony Stark struggling with PTSD and its humor, longtime Marvel fans were unhappy with its central twist involving villain the Mandarin. Many still consider it one of the MCU’s best standalone entries and it was a huge success, grossing over $1 billion. Black returned to familiar territory with 2016’s The Nice Guys, another action-comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.

Despite receiving strong reviews The Nice Guys underperformed, nixing chances of a franchise. One of Black’s earliest acting roles was in the original Predator, so it seemed like destiny he would return to direct fourth solo entry The Predator. Unfortunately, the film suffered a troubled production that saw the original third act being scrapped and reshot. The final product bore the scars of heavy re-edits, with abrupt shifts in tone and plot. The Predator was considered a disappointment and failed to kick off a new series. Shane Black is still attached to an adaptation of comic hero Doc Savage, with Dwayne Johnson linked to the title role.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3486 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

See also  Grace Fulton Is Playing Both Versions Of Her Shazam 2 Character

More From Padraig Cotter