Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee was a pioneer, but his last years were tragic as he was exploited by former business partners for commercial gain. A new documentary by director Jon Bolerjack is set to explore that, and the project is aptly titled Stan Lee: The Final Chapter.
Lee is fondly remembered by his fans, but not many know how he suffered in his final years, dealing with mistreatment, manipulation, and abuse. The documentary is going to shed light on the exploitation the Marvel icon faced.
The events shown in the documentary were chronicled by Bolerjack, who became an assistant to Lee. He was a fixture of Lee’s inner circle, and filmed whatever he saw.
The first official trailer of the documentary has already dropped. Take look:
Ahead of the documentary’s release, let’s take a look at Lee’s net worth at the time of his death. Besides his work in comics, Lee also wrote for television and film. He notably produced the popular 1970s television series Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk. He even made cameo appearances in various Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
What was Stan Lee’s net worth at the time of his death?
Lee died at the age of 95 in 2018. At the time of his passing, he had a net worth of $50 million, according to IMDb and Celebrity Net Worth.
Lee was asked in a March 2014 Playboy interview how much he had gained financially from his involvement in Marvel over the years. The company was sold to Disney for $4 billion. Lee replied, “
I don’t have $200 million. I don’t have $150 million. I don’t have $100 million or anywhere near that.”
Lee was then asked if he thought that was fair, considering George Lucas was worth $7.3 billion. Lee replied, “George Lucas did it all by himself. He came up with the ideas. He produced the movies. He wrote and directed them and held the rights to the merchandising. It was all his. In my case I worked for the publisher. If the books didn’t sell, the publisher went broke – and a lot of publishers did go broke.”
It is believed that Lee’s net worth could have been significantly higher if a legal battle in the early 2000s had worked out well. He sued Marvel in November 2002, alleging that the company did not honour a contract that promised him 10% of all profits generated by film and television projects that were based on his creations. While a judge initially sided with Lee, a settlement that was finally reached resulted in Lee being given a one-time payment of $10 million.
