The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities

Michael Jackson never graced Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list during his life. In death, the King of Pop earned more in the past year than any star on that list, apart from Oprah Winfrey.

Jackson not only took the No.1 spot on our 10th annual ranking of the Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, with gross earnings of $275 million, he out-earned the other 12 deceased stars on the list combined. Still more impressive: His estate's 12-month haul was greater than the pooled earnings of this year's two biggest living acts, U2 and AC/DC. Jackson's posthumous earnings come from his stake in the lucrative Sony/ATV catalog, the hit Sony film This Is It and renewed fan interest in music, videos and all things Michael Jackson.

"The death of Michael Jackson really put a focus on--crassly, quite frankly--what someone's worth when they're deceased," says David Reeder, vice president of Corbis' GreenLight, which manages the personality rights for Albert Einstein and Steve McQueen, among other dead celebrities. "In a more positive way, it exposed consumers to this idea that there actually is a market for, and an enduring legacy for, these people."
From Forbes.com

To place on this year's list, a deceased celebrity needed to earn at least $5 million between Oct. 1, 2009, and Oct. 1, 2010. For the most part, earnings come from things like music royalties (John Lennon), book sales (Dr. Seuss) or the licensing of one's image and likeness (McQueen). To compile the list, we spoke to agents, lawyers and other sources to estimate a star's gross earnings (before taxes, management fees and other costs).

Coming in at No. 2 is Elvis Presley. The King of Rock n' Roll's estate pulled down $60 million in the 12-month period, thanks to Graceland admissions and a heavily hyped Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. The estate's portfolio of more than 200 licensing and merchandise deals got a nice boost from the late star's 75th birthday celebration as well.

Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, debuts on this year's list at No. 6 with $18 million in earnings. The Swedish writer died in 2004 at the age of 50, before any of the books in his Millennium Trilogy were published. They have since sold 40 million copies, been translated into 44 languages and spawned three hit Swedish movies.

No surprise, Hollywood has come calling. A U.S. version of the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is scheduled to hit theaters next December. The film will be directed by The Social Network's David Fincher and star Daniel Craig as hero Mikael Blomkvist. A cut of the money from the American movies (and a reported fourth book) will go to Larsson's estate, which is being fought over by Larsson's longtime girlfriend and his brother and father.