Will Smith’s Net Worth Is Fit for a Prince! How the Actor Earns Money Amid ‘Gemini Man’ Lawsuit

Will Smith has come a long way since spending most of his days on a playground in West Philadelphia. The actor, rapper and film producer was mostly broke when he began filming The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but all of that changed with his film breakthrough a few years later. Now, Will is sitting on a multimillion-dollar net worth.

What Is Will Smith’s Net Worth?

Will has a net worth of $350 million in 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

This is a far cry from his financial status when The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air premiered in 1990. Although the actor had earned approximately $10 million from his music career, he overspent his money and underpaid his income taxes. The IRS assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Will and encouraged him to star in NBC’s sitcom in order to pay off his debt.

“For the first three years of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the IRS was taking 70 percent of every check, and after the third year, I got back to zero. It’s terrible to have that kind of success and have to quietly be broke,” Will said in a 60 Minutes interview.

In a 2018 YouTube video titled “How I Became The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” the Bad Boys star explained how difficult it was to be well-known and financially unstable at the same time.

“Being famous and broke is a s–tty combination because you’re still famous, and people recognize you, but they recognize you while you’re sitting next to them on the bus,” he said.

How Does Will Smith Earn Money?

Will began his career as the MC of hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince with childhood best friend Jeffrey “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes. The pair signed with Def Jam Records in 1986 and released their debut album, Rock the House, the following year. Jeffrey and Will went on to release four more successful albums, and Will earned the first Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for their hit song “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

In addition to the $10 million Will earned for his music career between 1988 and 1990, he made his film breakthrough with Six Degrees of Separation in 1993 and was reportedly paid a $500,000 salary for the role, according to CNW. This was followed by the widely successful Bad Boys debut in 1995, for which he reportedly earned a $2 million paycheck. He was reportedly paid $20 million to appear in the 2003 sequel.

Some of Will’s biggest movie paydays include King Richard ($60 million), Emancipation ($35 million), I, Robot ($28 million) and Men in Black 3, Hancock, The Pursuit of Happyness and Ali, for which he reportedly earned $20 million each.

Will Smith Gets Caught in $1 Million Lawsuit Over ‘Gemini Man’ Film

In September 2024, Will was named in a $1.7 million copyright infringement lawsuit brought by science fiction author Kissinger Sibanda, who claimed that the actor’s film Gemini Man ripped off his work, In Touch reported. Skydance Productions, Gemini Pictures, Paramount Pictures, David Ellison and other defendants were also listed, according to court documents obtained by In Touch.

Sibanda, who described himself as an American/South African national, an attorney and a science fiction writer, said that he wrote a science fiction novel titled The Return to Gibraltar, which he released in 2011.

“The book details an African American who is cloned and used in a time traveling program without his permission. In marketing the book, plaintiff Sibanda asserted that it would be a good fit for Will Smith as the lead,” the suit read. “In 2019, Defendants released Gemini Man, directed by Ang Lee and starring Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong. The [film] follows a former hitman who is targeted by a younger clone of himself while on the run from the government.”

The suit continued, “The defendants struggled to make the movie until plaintiff released his book in 2011, thereafter they changed the film’s marketing strategy – taking themes, plots, characterizations, context and cultural subtexts from the book to create their movie, Gemini Man.”

Gemini Man was first written in 1997 by a writer named Darren Lemke. The film was in development for over 20 years. It had various A-listers attached until Will signed on as the lead in April 2017.

Sibanda said he sent a legal letter to the defendants in 2020 but never heard back. “To date defendants have not offered any monetary settlement to plaintiff, only a zero-dollar walk away,” the suit claimed.