Drew Barrymore has been part of the film industry since the age of five before her troubled past began, when she landed her big break playing Margaret Jessup in 1980’s Altered States. As such, it’s hardly surprising that her net worth today is estimated to be $85 million.
Throughout her over four-decade-long career span, Barrymore has landed several major roles, such as playing Casey Becker in the Scream franchise, having also starred and produced in the ever-so-popular Charlie’s Angels flick in 2000.
It’s believed that the 48-year-old is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, having made as much as $10 million per film while also growing her own production company, Flower Films.
Aside from her acting career, however, Drew is also an exceptional businesswoman who makes a generous income from multiple sources outside of the lucrative deals she’s used to signing with film studios - so how exactly has her net worth skyrocketed? Here’s the lowdown.
Updated December 2024: Drew Barrymore may not be acting as much as she was in her earlier years or even after she founded Flower Films. This has to do with the fact that the mother-of-two wants to spend as much time as possible with her girls. Because of this, Barrymore took on the duties of a daytime talk show host so that there was stability in her schedule.
Not only is Drew hosting The Drew Barrymore Show, but she is also producing it. As such, there is more money to be made for more duties on the show.
Drew Barrymore’s Earnings
After gaining recognition for her role in Altered States, it wasn’t long before Barrymore would sign on for another big project, which was none other than Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Her work for the forthcoming years was mostly low-budget movies. Soon after that though in 1995, Barrymore was cast as Sugar in Batman Forever, which propelled her to become a household name in her adult years.
The movie role was far from any of the characters she’d played in the past, so it also allowed fans to see just how diverse she was with her talent.
Barrymore has always been an actor who would prefer to take more independent film roles or smaller roles that she finds interesting rather than take a big payday for the sake of it. However, at the height of her career around 2006, it was not uncommon for Barrymore to make $10 million or more for a movie.
Some of the higher-paying films Drew Barrymore has been in include:
| Charlie's Angels (Film) | 2000 | Role: Dylan Sanders | $9 million |
| Charlie's Angels (Film) | 2003 | Role: Dylan Sanders | $14 million |
| Music and Lyrics (Film) | 2007 | Role: Sophie Fisher | $15 million |
To put into perspective, the year that Barrymore starred in Music and Lyrics alongside Hugh Grant, her fellow industry peers Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock, were both making $15 million per film at the time as well. That shows just how in-demand Barrymore became in a short time.
However, over the years as a result of wanting to be involved in her children's lives, that changed given that Barrymore chose not to work as much.
When Barrymore signed on to star as Sheila Hammond in Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet in 2017, she was juggling motherhood and homeschooling with work. As such, she ultimately decided that she would take whatever amount that the streaming giant would pay her.
"But when I [found myself] all of a sudden a single mum, I kind of had to go back to work and I didn’t know how to do that with kids and I was in a freak spiral," Barrymore explained. "So when I got this show, I was like, 'I’ll take whatever you can give me.'"
It’s unclear what she made in the first series, but she was able to renegotiate her contract when a second and third season were issued, which saw the actress’ numbers move up to $350,000 per episode.
"I think I'm just so [nervous] to ever go back to having no career," Barrymore said. " I know what it's like to be told, 'You're done for awhile, sit on ice in the black-list corner.' And I revived my career -- I started producing and having success with films for, like 20 years and then I had kids and stepped back. Then on seasons two and three, I was like, 'Maybe I'm of value to this show.'"
Drew Barrymore Becomes A Movie Producer
Producing movies has been another strong source of income for Barrymore, who launched her production company Flower Films with the help of Nancy Juvonen in 1995. To date, the two have released a string of successful films together.
Some of the motion pictures by Drew Barrymore and Flower Films include:
| Never Been Kissed | 1999 |
| Charlie's Angels | 2000 |
| Donnie Darko | 2001 |
| Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle | 2003 |
| Duplex | 2003 |
| 50 First Dates | 2004 |
| Fever Pitch | 2005 |
| He's Just Not That Into You | 2009 |
| Whip It | 2009 |
| Animal | 2014 |
| Happy Camp | 2014 |
| How To Be Single | 2016 |
| Freak | 2017 |
And if the California native wants to take a step back from the film industry altogether, she still has her cosmetics company Flower Beauty, launched in 2013, where she sells everything from skin elixirs to lip kits, and other makeup products at very affordable prices.
Drew Barrymore's Love Of Real Estate
There’s also no chance that Barrymore could even possibly go broke anytime soon as she’s also a big fan of real estate investing. The Blended star reportedly owns an $8.3 million Upper East Side luxury apartment along with several other properties in Los Angeles.
In an Instagram post from March 2019, Barrymore gushed about the flexibility her career in filmmaking has allowed her to spend more time with her kids since they usually accompany their mother to work, usually from their New York apartment.
"And I just like that she likes to hang with her mom," Barrymore shared. "I love to have her at my job and I love that she likes being there. Proud mom. P.S. Thank you, Uncle Jimmy. My girls love you and Olive’s godmother, your wife Nancy!" She's referring to Jimmy Fallon and his wife, Drew's producing partner, Nancy Juvonen.
