Mark Wahlberg, The Businessman

We’ve talked about sports stars in this series before. Read about Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Virat Kohli and Lionel Messi here. So, let’s get to the acting industry today.

Mark Wahlberg has been in the acting industry for a long time. He’s been a part of some iconic movies in that time, including the Planet of the Apes series, the Transformers series and the Ted series. And you might already know all that. Let’s get to the finances.

He’s obviously earned millions of dollars by just acting. The number is definitely higher than $50 million according to reports. He’s endorsed big brands throughout his career too, including the likes of Calvin Klein, GNC and AT&T. And he’s also a very smart investor.

The biggest return in terms of money would be from the company F45 Fitness. He, along with a private equity firm, invested in the firm in 2019. At that time the valuation was reported to be $450 million. In July 2021, the company went public at a $1.6 billion valuation. At IPO time, his stake would have been worth more than $120 million. The stock price has fallen for the most part since the IPO. If he’s held all of the stake he originally had, that would be worth about $4.5 million. He also became the Chief Brand Officer for the company in 2023.

He co-owns a burger chain, named Wahlburgers with his brothers. They now have over 90 locations around the world and bring in over $100 million in annual revenues. He’s also invested in or co-founded a lot of other companies, including a cricket team, a bottled water company, a sports nutrition company, a sneaker resale marketplace, a Chevrolet dealership and a tequila brand.

He’s also dabbled in real estate over the years. The most famous one was his Beverly Hills home, which he bought for $4.95 million in 2001 and sold for $12.4 million in 2018. And his primary property has been another mansion in Beverly Hills for which he and his wife paid $8.25 million in 2009. They carried out renovations and constructions worth some $20 million. That house was sold in 2023 for $55 million.

All of this is certainly impressive, but I think his most enviable assets are his watches. His collection is definitely worth around $10 million. He has some truly rare pieces in it, some of which might only be sold by invitation. Let’s look at some of them. (All of the pictures were taken from Watch Enthusiast)

This is a highly sought-after Rolex Daytona, covered with 36 “baguette sapphire gems” around the bezel of the watch. It would cost around $450k at least when you try to buy it from someone. Keep in mind, these watches cost much more in the secondary market than their retail prices due to their limited supply.

This is an “iced-out” Rolex Daytona. Iced-out simply refers to the watch being covered in diamonds. The watch is made of Platinum and would cost you around $400k to buy on the secondary market.

This is a platinum Rolex Day Date, which was apparently only available in the Middle East, hence the Arabic numerals in the dial. This would cost more than $200k to buy.

This one is the Patek Philippe Nautilus with an olive green dial and a diamond-set bezel. While it retailed for less than $100k, the current market price would be close to $800k.

This one is one of the most sought-after watches among enthusiasts. It’s named the Tiffany Blue Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711. And since it has been discontinued, it would fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, a multiple over its retail price of around $52k.

This is Patek Philippe’s Grand Complication Ref. 5374/300P with a minute-repeater and perpetual calendar (with day, date, month, leap year and 24-hour indication by hands) and also features a moon phase. It goes for more than $1 million on the secondary market. Also, the guy next to Mark in the above picture, is the guy that paid $6.5 million for the Tiffany Blue Nautilus at an auction.

Okay, I can go on and on about watches. But that wasn’t the main focus of this article. So, Mark Wahlber’s net worth is listed as $400 million on the net, and you don’t get there by letting your money rest in the bank. He’s invested a lot of time and money into his career and investments obviously. And as with movies, in the investment realm too there are hits and misses, what matters is your hits are more memorable/profitable than your misses.

Plus, you need to be able to network with people who matter. This is shown in Wahlberg’s watch collection, in that, many of the watches he sports, are not available to most other people on the planet, even when we take the cost out of the question. Some of these watches are invite-only, basically for either very important people, or the very best of clients of these brands.

And while that’s it for this article, you can read more from me here. And do let me know if you want a specific topic covered! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.