This Twilight Character Is Richer Than Tony Stark by Quite a Lot
Everyone knows who Tony Stark is. Aside from the comic books he comes from, it’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe that shot Stark to the forefront of pop culture. Robert Downey Jr. gave him the flare and charisma to lead the franchise since 2008 and created a whole new era of superhero movies. But while Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, is filthy rich, one member of the Cullen family from Twilight is actually a lot richer than him.
The leader of the Cullen coven is one of the top three richest fictional characters
Stark’s wealth is well-known. Not only does Tony have a massive house seen in the movies, but he has enough money to fuel his inventions. He makes several different types of his Iron Man suit, he invests well (obviously), and was even able to give several large scholarships to MIT students’ for research.
Long story short, he was very visibly rich. However, Carlisle Cullen is over three times as rich as Tony Stark.
From 2002 to 2013, Forbes released the richest fictional characters yearly, and in 2013, Carlisle came in at number 3. They reported that he made $46 billion. Tony Stark made $12.4 billion, coming in at number 4.
The top two spots went to Smaug, the dragon from The Hobbit, with $54.1 billion, and Scrooge McDuck who made $65.4 billion.
The Cullens are rich as heck
TikTok user @twiggy_stardust brought this back to fans’ attention recently, among the conversation of “eating the rich.” But even though it makes sense — Carlisle Cullen is hundreds of years old and has a daughter who can predict the stock market — it’s still odd to think that Carlisle Cullen is so much richer than Stark.
As Forbes wrote, Carlisle made his “11-figure fortune” thanks to his many years of being able to do so. He’s a doctor, so that pays well for one (even if he does stick to small towns). And he has over 300 years of interest on his accounts. They wrote that he’s an “early backer of IBM, Apple, East India Company: Investment,” which is a fact not a ton of fans know. The Cullens also don’t have to use their money for things other than travel and upkeep of their several estates and properties. They don’t need to eat or drink. Although from the Twilight novels and movies, we know that Alice splurges on designer anything when they do buy new threads.
The Cullens’ wealth was a topic of contention for Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. It made her uncomfortable just because she felt a little more inferior due to it. You know, on top of her being a humble human to their superhuman strength and beauty. She was not OK with Edward spoiling her, although she got over it a bit more once they got married.
What’s Carlisle Cullen’s story?
Carlisle in 1640s England to an Anglican pastor father and his mother, who died in childbirth. His father lead the fight against witchcraft, vampires, and other beings of the occult variety. Carlisle Cullen was always compassionate, and its that love for life and urge to do good that lead to his anti-human diet.
After he was turned into a vampire, Carlisle held so much self-hatred for what he had become that he refused to drink and “starved” himself for months. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he was far from human life, and attacked the closest living thing: a deer. And so the famous Cullen vegetarianism was born.
Centuries later he saved Edward in Chicago in 1918 when he was dying of the Spanish Influenza. That was the first of his family, and by the time Bella met them in 2005, there were seven members of the Cullen family. While Edward shares a lot of this with Bella in Twilight and other books, Midnight Sun has so much more info about Carlisle. Plus it’s first-hand from Edward.
So even though Carlisle doesn’t build Iron Man suits or give to massive inventor funds, the Cullens are far more loaded than Tony Stark. Good luck eating those rich vampires, though.
