How Much is Macaulay Culkin's Net Worth in 2025?
As of 2025, Macaulay Culkin's estimated net worth is $18 million. That's not bad for someone who essentially "retired" at 14 and has spent most of his adult life doing exactly what he wants which, refreshingly, isn't always chasing the biggest paycheck.
What strikes me about Culkin's wealth is how he discovered it. In a 2018 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he revealed he didn't even know he was rich until he turned 18 four years after stepping away from acting.
"I didn't see it until I turned 18, I call it the 'Slip of Paper' meeting, where they pretty much put a number on a piece of paper and slide it across the table and then boom! There you go," he said. Imagine finding out you're a millionaire like that. Most of us would probably faint.
The beauty of his financial situation? "I felt like some kid worked really, really hard, and I inherited all of his money pretty much... it allows me to treat everything like a hobby really. I do nothing for my dinner nowadays, so I can do all kinds of projects." That's probably the most honest thing any former child star has ever said about money.
Who is Macaulay Culkin?
Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin (yes, that's his actual legal name after a 2019 poll) is an American actor and musician who became one of the most successful child stars of the 1990s. But honestly, that description barely scratches the surface of who he really is.
Most people still think of him as that blonde kid who outsmarted burglars with paint cans and Micro Machines. And sure, Kevin McCallister will probably follow him to his grave not necessarily a bad thing when your gravestone could read "Made Christmas better for millions of people." But Culkin has evolved into something much more interesting: a guy who figured out how to live life on his own terms.
He legally changed his middle name to "Macaulay Culkin" in 2019 after holding a vote on his website which is either brilliant performance art or the most expensive joke ever, depending on how you look at it.
In 2020, his 40th birthday tweet "Hey guys, wanna feel old? I'm 40. You're welcome" became the ninth most-liked tweet of all time. The man understands his cultural power.
These days, he's dating actress Brenda Song (they have a son together), runs a satirical website called Bunny Ears, and picks acting projects that actually interest him.
His latest gig? A recurring role as a "crazy genius-type character" in Season 2 of Amazon Prime's hit series Fallout. Not a bad career pivot for someone who supposedly disappeared from Hollywood.
Macaulay Culkin Career Earnings
Between 1989 and 1994, Culkin earned a staggering $23.5 million from just seven films equivalent to about $40 million today when adjusted for inflation. For context, that's more money than most people make in their entire careers, and he did it before he could drive.
The numbers tell an incredible story of escalating success. He started small earning just $110,000 for the original Home Alone. Not bad for a 10-year-old, but nothing compared to what came next.
For Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, his salary jumped to $4.5 million a 4,000% increase that would make any agent weep with joy.
By the time he starred in Getting Even with Dad and Richie Rich, he was commanding $8 million per film. At 14, he was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, period. Not just child actors all actors.
Here's what's fascinating though: Culkin doesn't receive royalties from Home Alone. Despite the movie generating hundreds of millions in revenue and becoming a holiday staple that still plays every December, he got his upfront payment and that was it. It's a reminder of how different Hollywood contracts worked in the early '90s.
His recent work has been more selective but still lucrative. He's done voice work for Amazon's "The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy," appeared in "American Horror Story: Double Feature," and had an arc on HBO's "The Righteous Gemstones." These aren't massive paydays, but they keep the creative juices flowing and add to his nest egg.
Macaulay Culkin Early Life
Macaulay Carson Culkin was born on August 26, 1980, in Manhattan, New York City, to Christopher "Kit" Culkin, a former stage actor, and Patricia Brentrup. His parents never married, which would later become significant during some very messy custody battles.
Culkin began acting at age four, starting with a stage production of Bach Babies at the New York Philharmonic. Four years old! Most kids that age can barely tie their shoes, and he was already performing at Lincoln Center.
He went on to appear in small theater productions and made-for-TV movies throughout the 1980s before landing his breakthrough role in Uncle Buck alongside John Candy.
But his childhood wasn't all red carpets and movie premieres. Culkin has described his father as "the worst person he's ever known," calling him violent and abusive.
He said the abuse seemed to stem from jealousy because "everything [Kit] tried to do in his life [Macaulay] excelled at before [he] was 10 years old." That's a heartbreaking way to understand your own success.
The family dynamic got even messier when his parents split during his teens. Culkin took his parents to court to remove their names from his trust fund and hired an executor.
Often reported as "emancipation," Culkin later clarified it was purely financial: "We didn't want to go with my father. It's always misconstrued, that I 'emancipated' myself from my parents.
I legally took my parents' names off of my trust fund and found an executor, someone who would look over my finances, just in case anyone wanted to stick their f–king pinkie in the pie."
That legal move probably saved his fortune. His parents had been taking 15 percent of his pay for every project a substantial chunk when you're earning millions.
