Bibek Acharya
It’s quite impressive if you’ve been dead for four decades and you’re still able to rake in the cash from beyond the grave. The only type of person who would be able to achieve that feat is someone of a massive calibre – someone classed as more than a celebrity, or a royal, even. But that title was more than befitting for the King of Rock and Roll himself, Elvis Presley, who, despite having passed away in 1977, to this day somehow remains one of the world’s richest stars.
That almost seems impossible, but then you remember just how staggering Presley’s record sales were – and still are – and the fact is put far more into context. As of 2023, American records show that The King has sold more than 146.5 million albums in the country alone, making him single-handedly one of the most successful recording artists to have ever graced the planet. His wealth, in life and in death, may be sickening, but it is at least justifiable.
Indeed, according to the Forbes rich list, in 2023 Presley was the second-highest earning dead celebrity, raking in a massive $100million in only that year. That placed him a measly $15m behind the top-earning deceased star, Michael Jackson, who continued to cash in the millions despite having passed away coming up on 15 years prior.
It stands testament to the fact that Presley remains a stalwart of the rock and roll cause even generations down the line, continuing to be one of the highest-selling artists in history by shifting around one million units of albums every year to this day, proving that he is bound to have a very flush fortune for as long as music still plays and the Earth still spins.
How is the fortune of Elvis Presley split up?
With that said, however, it does beg the question of how Presley’s wealth continues to be distributed after all this time. Initially, following his untimely death in 1977, his estate was split between his father, grandmother, and daughter Lisa-Marie. Over the years, with all three having now passed away themselves, the entire beneficiary is given to his granddaughter, Riley Keough.
As such, although Keough evidently has a mammoth fortune on her hands, there are still other financial avenues to take. Use Graceland as just one example, which will forever keep the estate flourishing with its level of tourist acclaim, and with only a comparative fraction of the cost invested in its upkeep. Then you consider the fact that Hollywood came calling only a few years ago with the Austin Butler biopic – and the fact is that the Presley dynasty is never going to end.
Some people may see it as a dark facet of the business, but it is simply the truth that big stars mean even bigger business, and in Presley’s case, it’s equivalent to Mount Everest. Amassing more money than he could possibly have known what to do with in his lifetime, let alone in his death, does raise a range of moral and ethical questions, but so too it would with any such monarch. They didn’t call him the King of Rock and Roll for nothing.
