‘The Addams Family’: Forbes Estimates Gomez Addams Had a Net Worth of $2 Billion
The Addams family first appeared in the mid-1930s as a series of comic strips by cartoonist Charles Addams in The New Yorker. The family quickly leaped from the magazine’s pages to the screen, first as a TV show, then in several ’90s movies. And despite being completely fictitious, the Addams family are grounded somewhat in reality because their creator intended them to be a satirical take on the modern family. This has led some financial experts to try and estimate just how much the wealthy TV family would be worth if they were real.
The Addams family are led by Gomez Addams and Morticia Addams
“[The Addams are a] closely-knit family,” explained Addams himself in his book The Addams Family: An Evilution, according to Pomegranate. “Many of the troubles they have as a family are due to Grandma’s fumbling, weak character. The house is a wreck, of course, but this is a house-proud family just the same and every trap door is in good repair. Money is no problem.”
Addams’ theme of “money being no problem” is presented in all of the many iterations and reboots of The Addams Family. Throughout the animated and live-action TV series, the ’90s movies, the 2019 animated film, and the modern Broadway reinterpretation, the family is portrayed as wealthy and aristocratic.
Much of their wealth is due to the business activities of Gomez Addams. The character is portrayed as being heavily invested in Wall Street, and owning multiple businesses around the world. This includes a uranium mine, an exotic animal farm, a salt mine, and even a factory that manufactures tombstones. And Forbes business magazine decided to try and quantify exactly how much Gomez Addams would be worth if he actually existed in the real world.
Forbes estimates that Gomez Addams was a multibillionaire
Using the various films, TV shows, and other material in The Addams Family universe, the financial analysts at Forbes calculated how much Gomez’s different business dealings could have netted him.
“They say fortune favors the bold — but it also favors the fictional,” reports the publication. To figure out Gomez’ net worth, Forbes says it used “an analysis of the fictional character’s source material … valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we sought to identify comparable fictional public companies. All prices are as of market close, Dec. 10, 2007.”
Based on the above, Forbes calculated that Gomez Addams had a net worth of $2 billion due to investing and his family inheritance. Gomez Addams “owes [his] fortune to [his] quirky — and lucky — investment style: bought a swamp for ‘scenic value,’ subsequently discovered massive oil deposit underneath; purchased mummified hand at flea market, later determined to be priceless remains of an Egyptian pharaoh.” And Gomez Addams wasn’t the only character in The Addams Family to hold a fortune.
Many other characters in ‘The Addams Family’ are rich
Gomez Addams’ older brother, known as Uncle Fester, was also rich. He’s often portrayed wearing a big, full-length fur wardrobe, and talks often about his business dealings. And the entire family seems to have benefited from a long history of inheritance and wealth. For example, in one of the earliest episodes of the original TV show, the entire clan decides to take a vacation to the moon.
The Addams ask their supercomputer Whizzo to calculate how much they’ll need for this intergalactic getaway. The computer estimated the family would need just over a billion dollars or $1,000,000,021.13 to be exact. The entire family appears rather unbothered by the vast sum, and decide to put some bets on an upcoming horse race to raise the funds they need.
