Michael Jackson's Lifetime Earnings

The Halloween icon's career earnings are scary-high, especially when adjusted for inflation.

Around the globe tonight, Michael Jackson’s tunes remind us Halloween is in full swing. And whether it’s his uncredited vocals on “Somebody’s Watching Me” or his dancing emulated by a “Thriller” flash mob, the spooky holiday shows how Jackson’s legacy endures, now 15 years after his death.

Halloween also feels like an apt moment to reflect on just how big the business of Jackson still is—and was, during his life. From his best-known moves (buying the Beatles’ publishing catalog) to his more under-the-radar decisions (launching a sneaker line long before Reebok’s S. Carter and G-Unit shoes), he inspired a generation of artists.

“Michael Jackson was so much bigger than Jay-Z or 50 Cent or anybody else,” 50 Cent once told me. “[He’s] why music is the way it is now … you’ve seen a shift in an area reserved for professional athletes.”

In my book Michael Jackson, Inc., published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster, I compiled estimates of his earnings for every year in his solo career. And while the total was impressive then—nearly $1.1 billion from 1979 to 2009—it’s downright supernatural when you update the figures in today’s dollars.

Jackson banked an inflation-adjusted $2.6 billion during his lifetime, which I determined with some help from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator. Paid subscribers can see the year-by-year numbers I compiled below.