“Bill Murray: From Ghostbusters to Commercial Success”
The Ghostbusters franchise has proven to be immensely profitable for Bill Murray, arguably becoming the most financially rewarding endeavor in his nearly 50-year career, which has seen its share of ups and downs like many actors. Murray stumbled into acting by chance but demonstrated a natural talent for it. Initially a stand-up comedian, he gained his first break on the National Lampoon Radio Hour in the early 1970s, swiftly becoming a household name through his sketches and hosting duties on Saturday Night Live.
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Bill Murray
Since then, Murray has diversified his portfolio, delving into writing, producing, voice acting, and occasional commercial appearances with the same nonchalant flair he exhibited as the stoic, Suntory-sipping Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. For his role in the film, Murray reportedly received a substantial $1 million paycheck, a noteworthy sum considering the film’s modest $1 million budget.
While his compensation for starring in his first national commercial—an ad for Jeep aired during the 2020 Super Bowl—remains undisclosed, Murray humorously quipped on set that it would also be his last commercial endeavor.
Murray has experienced several lucrative paydays since his breakthrough in the early 1980s. One of his most significant windfalls came from portraying Dr. Peter Venkman in the 1984 blockbuster Ghostbusters. Various reports suggest he earned around $6 million from the film, though some indicate a substantially higher figure due to his co-stars’ negotiations for a percentage of the movie’s gross box office revenue, which amounted to a cool $296.5 million.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Murray amassed approximately $125 million from the first two Ghostbusters movies, with an additional $15 million for his role in Ghostbusters Afterlife—more than double the sum he received for Scrooged.
