Well, maybe not so much the dead celebs as their descendents, but it is definitely profitable today to be a dead celebrity. Do you remember seeing Fred Astaire dance with the vacuum cleaner? Apparently, it is really the rock-n-roll legends that are pulling in the big dough.
Elvis Presley may be spinning in his grave to hear that he is no longer the top earning dead celebrity, according to a Forbes.com list. He has been surpassed by another King – Grunge King Kurt Cobain. This just seems so wrong because Elvis had a much longer career. But according to Forbes, Kurt earned $50 million last year while Elvis only earned $42 million. What exactly are these dead celebrities selling? The sales figures account for any licensing deals using the celebrities works or image.
This is the first time Kurt has been on the list. Why the sudden rise up the list? It happened when Cobain’s widow, singer Courtney Love, sold her 25% stake of the song catalog of Cobain’s band, Nirvana.
Elvis was number one every since Forbes started this dead celebrity list in 2000. And even though Kurt is on top now, something tells me that in 10 years, Kurt will have slid back down, while Elvis will remain at the top. It is hard to keep a good legend down.
Who else is doing well on the dead celebrity sales list? Charles Schultz came in right after Elvis with $35 million. John Lennon, dead for almost 26 years now, came in at number four, selling $24 million this year. Who was number five? Believe it or not, Albert Einstein, who owes a lot of his profit to the booming “Baby Einstein” educational products.
Dr. Seuss (real name: Theodore Geisel), Ray Charles, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Cash, and Andy Warhol round out the top ten. Who has been near the top in the past? Legendary songwriter Irving Berlin and acting great Marlon Brando were once near the top of the Forbes list.