You’re not imagining it: The rich do keep getting richer. Even the fictionally rich.
Each year Forbes calculates the net worth of the wealthiest
characters from novels, movies, television and games, constructing
portfolios based on those stories, and valuing them using real-world
commodity and share prices. This time around, the aggregate net worth of
the Fictional 15 climbed 3% to $215.8 billion. That’s more than the
gross domestic product of Ireland.
On the top of the list this year: Scrooge McDuck, the billionaire
bird who keeps most of his $65.4 billion fortune in gold coins, piled
high inside a Duckburg money bin. The world’s richest duck started out
in business when he was “just a wee nipper,” polishing boots on the
streets of his native Glasgow; today he owns some of the world’s largest
mining concerns. Famously penny-pinching, Scrooge still has the first
dime he ever earned.
Fiction’s second richest character, the reclusive
red-gold dragon Smaug, spent eons holed up in his Lonely Mountain lair
on top of a horde of valuables worth $54.1 billion. But “Smaug the
Tremendous” has been pushed into the limelight of late, after agreeing
to appear in Peter Jackson’s trilogy of Hobbit films; now he spends his days in Hollywood’s exclusive Chateau Marmont.
Other rich list perennials include the billionaire playboy Tony
Stark. An engineering genius who earned two master’s degrees by age 19,
Stark’s remarkable inventions (including the “Iron Man” combat armor)
are often outshined by his ability to create controversy. His latest
foible: publicly threatening the terrorist known as The Mandarin, who
responded by destroying Stark’s Malibu mansion. Still, the billionaire
playboy’s net worth is actually up year over year to $12.4 billion,
thanks in large part to the stewardship of Stark Industries CEO (and
subject of a recent Forbes cover story) Pepper Potts.
Several new faces appear on this year’s list, including Christian
Grey, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion. The enfant terrible
of the business world attributes his success to hard-work, lack of
personal distractions and extensive use of binding employment contracts:
“I like to tie down my best employees.” A demanding task-master, he’s
known for buying under-performing companies and whipping them into
shape.
High tech hotshot Walden Schmidt also makes his first appearance,
with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion. Schmidt flipped a startup
into a billion-dollar check from Microsoft MSFT +1.04%,
nearly lost everything after a break-up with his high-school sweetheart
turned wife, and then disappeared from the Silicon Valley scene. Now
reportedly living in a Malibu mansion with persnickety best friend and
his teenage son; attempting comeback with new business selling
power-grid management software.
And a few familiar faces return to the list after falling from its
ranks in previous years. “Tomb Raider” Lara Croft, the Countess of
Abbingdon, inherited her $1.3 billion fortune from staid British
ancestors, but gentle birth didn’t make her mild mannered: After earning
a degree in archaeology, Croft made a name for herself discovering the
long lost kingdom of Yamatai on an island off the coast of Japan.
Celebrated New York party host Jay Gatsby also makes a return
appearance: Long Island’s most eligible bachelor is renowned for hosting
wild, all-night “flapper” soirees fueled by caviar, champagne and the
Charleston.
To qualify for the Fictional 15, we require that candidates be an
authored fictional creation, a rule which excludes mythological and
folkloric characters. They must star in a specific narrative work or
series of works. And they must be known, both within their fictional
universe and by their audience, for being rich. (http://www.forbes.com).
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