Introduction 

Larry Mullen Jr. is an Irish professional musician and actor with an estimated net worth of $300 Million. 

U2 Earnings History

Forbes has listed U2 numerous times as one of the world’s highest-paid music groups, giving a good indication of the band’s earnings during its peak. Considering that U2’s entries on the list date back to the early 1990s, it wasn’t easy to find every single time they’ve been ranked. The figures we found also leave a lot to the imagination, with some entries spaced several years apart. Nonetheless, here’s what we found during our research.

U2 first made the Forbes list in 1993, earning an estimated $47 million that year. This was largely thanks to the band’s Zoo TV Tour. The tour grossed at least $151 million in revenue across 157 shows, which equates to an average of $961,000 per show. Four years later, in 1997, they rejoined the list, earning approximately $30 million. 

The band’s financial peak, at least according to the data, came in the 2010s. In the first two years of the decade, U2 performed on their U2 360° Tour, grossing $736 million in revenue. At the time, it broke the record for the highest-grossing tour in music history, but it has since been broken by artists like Elton John with his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. More recently, Taylor Swift shattered the record with her Eras Tour. For those two years, U2 earned an estimated $130 million and $195 million, respectively.

Recent Earnings

In recent years, the band has consistently produced annual earnings between $38 million and $78 million on nearly a dozen occasions. According to Forbes, their most recent $100 million calendar year was in 2018, grossing a combined $440 million from two tours: The Joshua Tree Anniversary Tour and the Experience + Innocence Tour.

Based on the information above, U2 has earned at least $742 million between 1997 and 2024. However, this only incorporates their most lucrative years, due to additional revenue from touring. They would have undoubtedly still earned millions in years when they weren’t on tour.

Promoter Lawsuit

As the drummer of U2, Mullen Jr. has been involved in a couple of high-profile lawsuits throughout his career involving the band. The first one came in early 1998, when U2 performed three concerts in Brazil, including two shows in São Paulo at Morumbi Stadium and one at Praça da Apoteose in Rio de Janeiro as part of their worldwide PopMart tour. Shortly after the final show, Bono and Mullen Jr. publicly claimed that the band had not been paid by the event’s promoter, Franco Bruni.

Bruni was one of Brazil’s most prominent promoters at the time, and he quickly denied all the allegations and confirmed that the fees had been paid. He was so unhappy with the comments that he filed a lawsuit against Bono and Mullen Jr. in Brazil’s civil courts, stating that the statements were false and had harmed his reputation within the entertainment industry.

Several years later, after the case had gone through the Brazilian legal system, on June 28, 2011, a São Paulo civil court found Mullen Jr. had defamed Bruni and ordered him to pay damages for reputational harm. Bruni was unhappy with this ruling and pushed for Bono also to be held accountable as a co-defendant.

The case reached its conclusion on October 4, 2016, when Brazil’s Fourth Civil Court of the City of São Paulo ruled in Bruni’s favor. Judge Renato Mandaliti determined that both Bono and Mullen Jr. were responsible for the misleading public accusations. He ordered them to pay a combined 6 million Brazilian real ($1.5 million at the time) in damages to Bruni for moral and commercial injury.

Paul Rose Lawsuit

A year after the ruling, in February 2017, British guitarist Paul Rose sued Mullen Jr. and the other three members of U2, Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton, along with their record label, Island Records, in the Southern District of New York. Rose alleged that portions of U2’s 1991 song The Fly, from their album Achtung Baby, had been lifted directly from his 1989 instrumental track, Nae Slappin.

Rose claimed that the demo of his song Nae Slappin was submitted and circulated at Island Records in 1989, two years before Achtung Baby was released. According to Rose, The Fly copied signature elements from his song, particularly the distinctive 12-second guitar solo, as well as aspects of the percussion and bass line phrasing.

Rose sought a minimum of $5 million in damages for the alleged infringement and demanded a co-writer’s credit on The Fly. Rose started the legal action more than 25 years after The Fly was released, as he claimed he had only recently discovered someone at Island Records who could back up his claims.

However, on January 30, 2018, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote dismissed the case after the court examined snippets of the two songs for comparison. It was stated that while both guitar solos began similarly, that’s where it ended, and The Fly did not meet the threshold for copyright infringement. Although the case was thrown out of court, it highlighted the challenges of dealing with copyright issues when songs sound similar.

Highlights

Here are some of the best highlights of Larry Mullen Jr.’s career:

• With Or Without You (Song, 1987) 
• All I Want Is You (Song, 1988) 
• Achtung Baby (Album, 1991) 
• Beautiful Day (Song, 2000) 
• Songs of Experience (Album, 2017) 

Introduction

Joy Reid is an American television host and political commentator with an estimated net worth of $4 Million. 

Reid built the majority of her wealth through a thirteen-year-long career with MSNBC. She reached a peak annual salary of $3 million per year at the network, while hosting the ReidOut from 2020 to 2024. In addition to her MSNBC salary, Joy also earns royalties from her book deals and fees from numerous speaking engagements.

Quick Facts

• Earned a $3 million annual salary from MSNBC during her peak years
• Typically charges between $50,000 and $100,000 for public speaking engagements
• Paid $55,000 to speak at the University of Iowa in 2023
• Sold her Pembroke Pines, Florida home for $350,000 in 2013

Before Wealth & Fame

Growing up in Denver, Colorado, Joy Reid was raised by a single mother who died when she was just seventeen years old. From then on, Reid became independent, later attending Harvard University, where she majored in film. After graduating from college in 1991, Reid moved to New York City with just $500 to her name. 

MSNBC Salary

Although Joy Reid began working with MSNBC in 2011, her salary wasn’t known until she launched The ReidOut with the network in 2020. While hosting the show, Reid was reportedly paid $3 million/year. This lasted up until 2024, when MSNBC began making staff salary cuts. They allegedly offered Joy a 50% pay cut, at $1.5 million annually, but she was later let go from the network.

Assuming she earned $3 million per year from 2020 to 2024, Joy Reid would have earned a total of $12 million during that period. 

Additional Income Sources

Despite Reid’s salary for her final few years at MSNBC being the most publicized figure of her career, she’s also able to earn substantial sums of money off-air.

The first stream of which is through speaking engagements, both live and virtual. Her fee is not cheap either. According to the AAE website, Joy Reid typically charges between $50,000 and $100,000 per engagement, and we do have one example of her being paid within this range for a past event. In February 2023, Joy signed a contract with the University of Iowa, which encompassed four obligations on two separate days, paying her a total of $55,000. Her obligations under the deal included participating in a phone interview, delivering a live 45-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute Q&A, attending a reception for photo opportunities, and participating in a 30-minute interview for the students’ college radio station.

Reid’s second income stream outside of television is from book deals, having published three books thus far:

• Fracture (2015)
• The Man Who Sold America (2019)
• Medgar & Myrlie (2024)

The financial details for all three books have never been publicly disclosed, and so we’re unable to know the values of her book advances and potential royalty payments.

Real Estate

In May 2001, Joy Reid and her husband, Jason Reid, paid $210,000 for a 2,506-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Pembroke Pines, Florida. The property was relisted on the market in August 2012 at $375,000, but the couple accepted an offer of $350,000 a year later.

Jewelry & Clothes 

Joy Reid loves jewelry, and she often switches up her pieces based on the pattern of her clothes. She is a big fan of wearing jewelry from Opal Stone. She owns a big collection of luxury brands in her wardrobe as well. 

Highlights 

Here are some of the best highlights of Joy Reid’s career: 

• Knight Center for Specialized Journalism (2003)
• Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide (Autobiography, 2016) 
• NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards (2018) – Nominated
• The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story (Autobiography, 2019) 

Introduction 

Anthony Edwards is an American professional actor and director with an estimated net worth of $40 Million. 

Edwards is most widely known for his portrayal of Dr. Mark Greene in the first eight seasons of ER. For his performance, he received a Golden Globe and six Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, such as Top Gun, Zodiac, Miracle Mile, Revenge of the Nerds, Planes, Northern Exposure, and Designated Survivor.

ER Salary

Anthony Edwards was the leading cast member for the TV medical drama, ER, and was paid accordingly. When we previously discussed Noah Wyle‘s salary on the show, we mentioned that there were slightly differing reports on the length of Wyle’s contract. According to the Washington Post, in 1998, both actors reportedly signed four-year contracts. Other, more recent reports suggest that the actors’ contracts were only three years long, but they might be referring to three seasons, split across four years.

In any case, Edwards’ contract was worth $35 million, which over three seasons would equate to roughly $11.66 million per season and $530,000 per episode. This figure is specifically related to seasons six through eight. There is, unfortunately, no confirmed information related to his earnings for seasons one through five. That said, some sources have suggested he may have been earning between $100,000 and $125,000 per episode in the earlier seasons. 

Edwards starred in 181 episodes of ER, earning $35 million from 66 of those episodes. Even at a $100,000 per episode baseline for the earlier 115 episodes, he would have earned at least an additional $11.5 million. Thus, this would bring his minimum earnings to at least $46.5 million in total, based on these rough estimates.

Highest-Grossing Movies

Although Edwards is most commonly known from his long-time role in the television series ER, the actor has had several box office hits. The highest-grossing film of Edwards’ career was 1986’s Top Gun, which grossed $180 million domestically and $357 million worldwide. The production budget for the movie was just $15 million, producing an impressive 2,280% return on investment.

Some of the other films to feature in Edwards’ top ten list include Planes ($357 million), The Client ($118 million), Revenge of the Nerds ($41 million), and Thunderbirds ($28 million). The oldest film to appear was 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which grossed $27 million against a $4.5 million budget. After adjusting for inflation, that $27 million would be worth $87.9 million in today’s currency.

Here’s a complete list of Anthony Edwards’ ten highest-grossing movies:

1. Top Gun – $357 Million (1986)
2. Planes – $240 Million (2013)
3. The Client – $118 Million (1994)
4. The Forgotten – $118 Million (2004)
5. Zodiac – $85 Million (2007)
6. Revenge of the Nerds – $41 Million (1984)
7. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise – $30 Million (1987)
8. Thunderbirds – $28 Million (2004)
9. Fast Times at Ridgemont High – $27 Million (1982)
10. The Sure Thing – $18 Million (1985)

Real Estate

Dana Point Beach House

In 1998, Edwards purchased a 2,104-square-foot beach house in Dana Point, California, for $1.525 million. Over the years, the actor has invested cash into restoring the five-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom property. In 2010, Anthony began renting the property out to people for between $8,000 and $12,000 per month, and in April 2023, he listed it for sale at $6.5 million. A buyer was found the same month, paying $50,000 over the asking price, which totaled $6.55 million.

Upper East Side Penthouse

In 2015, the actor acquired a 2,700-square-foot penthouse in the Upper East Side of New York City. According to public records, the unit was listed for sale at $8.45 million right before Edwards purchased it, but the final sale price remains unknown. In 2020, he listed the penthouse on the market at $7.65 million, which is $800,000 less than he paid. Since then, it appears the property has been on and off the market, with no confirmed sale.