Nicolas Cage once blew through $150M — and it wasn’t the dinosaur skull or king cobras that broke him For years, Nicolas Cage’s financial woes have been the stuff of Hollywood legends.
Stories about the Oscar-winning actor buying everything from castles (1) to a dinosaur skull (2) and even two pet king cobras (3) have cemented his reputation as one of the industry’s biggest spenders
But, according to Cage, that’s not what ultimately derailed his fortune. Must Read – Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one – – “What is an octopus, $80? You’re not going to go into dire straits buying an octopus,” he told the New York Times (4) during a 2019 interview.
He later told 60 Minutes (5), in 2023, he earned roughly $150 million during the height of his career but insisted it wasn’t his eccentric collectibles that left him in financial trouble. Instead, he pointed to something many people turn to build wealth: real estate. Cage explained that “the market crashed before [he] could get [his] money out” after “over investing in real estate.” He ended up writing a check for roughly $6,000,000 to clear his debt rather than declaring bankruptcy.