Quick answer: Celebrity Net Worth estimates Sigourney Weaver at about $60 million. Read the date before you quote it: that profile was last modified 12 February 2025, so it is not a fresh 2026 audit, and this page will not pretend otherwise. Forbes publishes no Sigourney Weaver profile at all — the URL returns a 404 — so any figure attributed to Forbes for her is invented.
The more useful number is one CNW prints and almost nobody reads. Its career-earnings table for Weaver totals $18 million, which is $42 million below its own net-worth estimate. That is not a contradiction. It is the difference between a partial list of seven paychecks and an estimate of accumulated wealth, and it is the single clearest illustration on this site of why a salary is not a fortune.
For the same flow-versus-stock problem seen from the other direction — decades of enormous salary that is still not net worth — see Jay Leno’s net worth. For a franchise fee that clone sites report as fact with no named source behind it, see Cillian Murphy’s net worth. For upfront pay versus franchise backend, see Emma Watson’s net worth.
Quick facts
| Item | Named record |
|---|---|
| Celebrity Net Worth | About $60 million (profile last modified 12 February 2025 — no 2026 refresh) |
| Forbes | No profile. forbes.com/profile/sigourney-weaver/ returns 404 |
| CNW “Total Earnings” row | $18 million — the sum of seven listed credits only, not a career total |
| Alien (1979) fee | Disputed: about $30,000 (Weaver’s own recollection, and CNW) or $35,000 (ScreenRant, AS USA) |
| Alien: Resurrection (1997) fee | $11 million plus a co-producer credit — more than the entire production budget of the 1979 original |
| Avatar: The Way of Water fee | $3.5 million as reported by Collider; never confirmed by 20th Century Studios |
| Academy Awards | Three nominations, zero wins |
| Golden Globes | Seven nominations, two wins — both on the same night in 1989 |
| Current work | Avatar: Fire and Ash, released 19 December 2025, as Kiri |
The $18 million table, and why it is not her career earnings
Celebrity Net Worth publishes a career-earnings breakdown on Weaver’s profile. Here it is in full, exactly as CNW lists it.
| Credit | CNW figure |
|---|---|
| Annie Hall (1977) | $50 |
| Madman | $2,000 |
| Alien (1979) | $30,000 |
| Aliens (1986) | $1 million |
| Alien³ (1992) | $4 million |
| Alien: Resurrection (1997) | $11 million |
| The Village (2004) | $2 million |
| CNW “Total Earnings” | $18 million |
Add those seven rows and you get $18,032,050. So the “total” is arithmetic on that list and nothing more. It carries no figure for Ghostbusters or Ghostbusters II, none for Working Girl, none for Gorillas in the Mist, none for Avatar or its sequels, and none for her voice work in WALL-E and Finding Dory — across a career that began in 1977. Treating $18 million as what Sigourney Weaver has earned in her life is simply a misreading of a seven-row table, and treating it as her net worth is a category error on top of that.
This is also why the gap between $18 million and $60 million is not evidence that either number is wrong. One is a short list of gross paychecks before agents, lawyers, and taxes. The other is a compiler’s guess at what is left after five decades of earning, spending, investing, and giving.
The Alien ladder — including a fee split we are not going to average
Her pay across four Alien films is the best-documented money in her career, and the first film is genuinely disputed. Weaver’s own account is hedged. She told Bustle in 2021: “I just remember that I was paid — according to people in the business — I basically wasn’t paid very much; I think I got $30,000 or something. Honestly I thought I could live on that for the rest of my life.” She was a 28-year-old stage actor who had been making almost nothing off-Broadway, and she described the relief of being able to support herself.
That “or something” is doing real work, and we are keeping it. Celebrity Net Worth also prints $30,000. ScreenRant and AS USA both report $35,000. Two defensible figures, roughly 17% apart, one of them from the person who was paid. This page prints both and names who says which. It does not split them into a fake “$32,500.”
| Film | Reported fee | Sourcing |
|---|---|---|
| Alien (1979) | $30,000 or $35,000 | Weaver herself, hedged, and CNW for $30,000; ScreenRant and AS USA for $35,000 |
| Aliens (1986) | About $1 million, plus a percentage of box-office profits | CNW; ScreenRant credits the Los Angeles Times |
| Alien³ (1992) | $4 million base, plus a share of the gross | CNW; ScreenRant credits Entertainment Weekly |
| Alien: Resurrection (1997) | $11 million, plus a co-producer credit | CNW; ScreenRant credits Entertainment Weekly |
ScreenRant’s cross-check is that she made over $16 million across the four films, which is consistent with CNW’s four Alien rows. The detail worth keeping is the scale of the climb: CNW puts the 1979 original’s budget at roughly $10 million against a gross of over $203 million. By 1997, Weaver’s fee alone was larger than the entire production budget of the film that made her famous.
Avatar: one named figure, and a trail of corrupted copies
For Avatar: The Way of Water, Collider’s budget breakdown reports Weaver at $3.5 million, covering both her return as Dr Grace Augustine and her motion-capture performance as Kiri. That is a real publisher with a real byline, so we name it and credit it. It is also not studio-confirmed: 20th Century Studios has never released cast salaries, and Collider’s figures sit alongside reported numbers for Sam Worthington ($10 million plus 5% of gross), Zoe Saldaña ($8 million), Kate Winslet ($6 million), and Stephen Lang ($2 million).
Downstream of that single report, the number decays. One box-office database lists Weaver at $1,116,127 and openly marks it an estimate. An aggregator claims she “received 11 million USD for playing the late Dr. Grace” in the 2009 film — that $11 million is her Alien: Resurrection fee, filed onto the wrong movie by twenty-eight years. Saldaña’s $8 million becomes “at least $10 million” a couple of copies later. This is what happens to a figure that has one source and a thousand republishers, and it is why we label the provenance instead of the dollar amount.
For the 2009 Avatar and for Fire and Ash, no named source reports her fee at all. We leave that blank rather than fill it.
What the Avatar films actually grossed
Her franchise context is worth stating precisely, because the live numbers are public and the compiler’s text is stale. Box Office Mojo puts Avatar (2009) at $2,923,710,708 worldwide — the highest-grossing film of all time, a position it reclaimed with its 2021 re-release in China. CNW’s own Weaver profile still describes it as “the second-highest-grossing film of all time,” which has been out of date for years and is a useful reminder to check a compiler’s prose as well as its headline figure.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) finished at about $2.33 billion. Avatar: Fire and Ash opened on 19 December 2025; Disney’s own newsroom reported a $347.1 million global opening weekend, with $89 million domestic and $258.1 million internationally. It finished near $1.49 billion — the third-biggest release of 2025, and the lowest-grossing film in the Avatar series, against a production budget reported at $350–400 million.
In Fire and Ash she plays Kiri, the adopted teenage daughter of Jake Sully and Neytiri who was born from Grace Augustine’s inert Na’vi avatar, and she also appears as Augustine again in visions. The Hollywood Reporter covered the performance in December 2025. None of this box office is her money — it is the scale of the productions she is paid to appear in, which is a different thing entirely.
Ghostbusters: not disclosed
Weaver played Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II. Her fee for either film has never been publicly disclosed. There is no studio filing, no trade report, and no compiler figure — CNW’s earnings table skips both films completely. Pages that tell you “industry insiders believe she earned a substantial amount” are describing their own guess in the grammar of reporting. We would rather leave a blank that is true.
Awards, and what she never won
Weaver has three Academy Award nominations and no wins: Best Actress for Aliens at the 59th ceremony, then two at once at the 61st in 1989 — Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist and Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl. She lost both that night at the Oscars.
At the Golden Globes she did better. Per the Golden Globes’ own records she has seven nominations and two wins, and both wins came on the same evening in 1989 for those same two performances, making her the first actor ever to win two acting Golden Globes in a single year. She later won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for The Ice Storm.
Property and patronage: what is actually documented
No named source prices any Sigourney Weaver property. There is no CNW real-estate section for her, no trade reporting on a purchase or sale, and no public filing. Any page describing her “valuable homes in desirable locations” and assuring you they have “likely increased in value” is writing atmosphere, not facts, so this page has no real-estate valuations.
What is documented is more interesting anyway. She has been married to the stage director Jim Simpson since 1984, they live in Manhattan, and in 1996 the two of them co-founded The Flea Theater, an off-off-Broadway company. That is money and decades of attention going out, into a non-profit theatre — a use of wealth rather than a holding to be added to an estimate.
How we research this page
Celebrity Net Worth’s Weaver profile for the $60 million estimate, the seven-credit earnings table, and the Alien salary ladder, dated to its 12 February 2025 modification stamp and not presented as current. Weaver’s own 2021 Bustle interview for her recollection of the first Alien fee, quoted with her hedge intact. ScreenRant for the competing $35,000 figure and for its attribution of the sequel fees to the Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly. Collider for the only named Way of Water salary report, labelled as unconfirmed. Box Office Mojo and Disney’s corporate newsroom for box office. The Golden Globes’ own database for awards. Forbes was checked directly and has no profile for her. Where sources conflict we print both and name each publisher. Process: About Us.
Frequently asked questions
What is Sigourney Weaver’s net worth in 2026?
Celebrity Net Worth estimates about $60 million. Note the date: that profile was last modified on 12 February 2025, so it is not a fresh 2026 audit. Forbes publishes no Sigourney Weaver profile at all — the URL returns a 404 — so anyone attributing a Weaver net-worth figure to Forbes is inventing it.
How much was Sigourney Weaver paid for the Alien movies?
Her own memory of the first film is hedged: she told Bustle in 2021, “I think I got $30,000 or something.” Celebrity Net Worth also prints $30,000, while ScreenRant and AS USA report $35,000. From there the ladder is steep — about $1 million plus profit participation for Aliens in 1986, $4 million plus a share of the gross for Alien³ in 1992, and $11 million plus a co-producer credit for Alien: Resurrection in 1997. That last fee was larger than the entire production budget of the original film.
Does CNW’s $18 million “total earnings” mean she only earned $18 million?
No, and this is the most misread number on her profile. Celebrity Net Worth’s career-earnings table lists just seven credits — Annie Hall at $50, Madman at $2,000, the four Alien films, and The Village at $2 million. Those rows add up to $18,032,050, which is where the $18 million comes from. It contains no figure for Ghostbusters, Working Girl, Gorillas in the Mist, Avatar, WALL-E or Finding Dory. It is a partial tally of seven jobs, not a career total, and not net worth.
How much did Sigourney Weaver make from Avatar?
For Avatar: The Way of Water, Collider reported $3.5 million, covering both Grace Augustine and the motion-capture performance as Kiri. 20th Century Studios has never confirmed it. No named source reports her fee for the 2009 original or for Avatar: Fire and Ash. Be careful with figures copied from aggregators here: one circulating claim of $11 million for the 2009 film is actually her Alien: Resurrection fee attached to the wrong movie.
How much did she earn from Ghostbusters?
It was never disclosed. No studio filing, trade report or compiler puts a number on her Ghostbusters or Ghostbusters II pay, and this page will not estimate one. Celebrity Net Worth’s own earnings table skips both films entirely.
Has Sigourney Weaver won an Oscar?
No. She has three Academy Award nominations and no wins: Best Actress for Aliens at the 59th ceremony, then Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist and Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl, both at the 61st in 1989. She did win two Golden Globes on that same 1989 night, becoming the first actor ever to win two acting Golden Globes in one year, and she won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for The Ice Storm.
Bottom line
On named sources, Sigourney Weaver’s money comes down to one dated compiler estimate and one well-documented salary ladder. Celebrity Net Worth says about $60 million, on a profile stamped 12 February 2025. Forbes says nothing, because Forbes has no page for her. Her Alien pay ran from a disputed $30,000 or $35,000 in 1979 to $11 million plus a co-producer credit in 1997, a fee bigger than the first film’s whole budget. The only named Avatar figure is Collider’s $3.5 million for The Way of Water, unconfirmed by the studio. Her Ghostbusters fee has never been disclosed and we have not invented one. And CNW’s own $18 million “total earnings” is seven rows of a spreadsheet, not a life’s work — which is exactly why you should always ask what a money number is counting before you repeat it.
