Dick Wolf has amassed a substantial net worth throughout his career, primarily due to his pioneering work in the field of crime series screenwriting.
He began his career after serving as an advertising copywriter at Benton & Bowles in New York, where he developed a commercial for Crest toothpaste.
From there, he transitioned into a screenwriting role – co-writing a 1978 Sports drama film Skateboard.
That impressed some major American networks enough to give him chance to write shows for them. He initially wrote a police drama Hill Street Blues in 1986 before also writing episodes of the NBC crime drama ‘Miami Vice’.
Wolf’s breakthrough came in 1990, as he created and started writing the episodes for the famous crime drama Law & Order’.
The show soon became one of the most popular ones in America and averaged 12.2m viewers in the USA in its debut season! It maintained crazy viewership numbers for years on end, with Wolf’s exceptional writing ability enticing millions of viewers.
Law & Order was so popular that it went on for two whole decades. It was even renewed last year and is currently airing its 22nd season!
Because of its crazy popularity, spinoffs to Law & Order like Law & Order: UK, Law & Order: LA, and many more were created by Wolf.
The 76-year-old is also the writer and producer for the ‘Chicago Fire’ show and its many popular spinoffs too. Because Wolf also acted as executive producer for these shows, he received more money than any normal writer does.
What is Dick Wolf’s Net Worth?
Wolf has been able to build up a formidable fortune thanks to his incredible consistency in writing hundreds of stories for his multiple crime drama TV shows. He’s been rewarded for his longevity and ability to keep his shows seem fresh and interesting for many years on end.
It has been reported that the Law & Order creator has a net worth of $600 million. If one is to calculate his earnings for the last thirty years, when his career really started soaring, it indicates that he’s earned an average of just under $20 million since 1990.
Fans are surprised by this because of the general perception that he’d be earning well over that because of how well he’s produced multiple super-hit TV shows over the last three decades or so.
I refuse to believe Dick Wolf net worth is only 600 million. Just found out he also executive produced NY undercover.. He been making hit shows for over 30 years!!
Not only does Wolf receive money for his screenwriting credits, but he should also earn major money for being an executive producer for his hit shows and earning a portion from the profits too.
The truth behind Dick Wolf’s fortunes
While Wolf is relatively swift in revealing the verdict of most of the cases in his crime shows’ episodes, things unraveling in his own life haven’t always been that quick. He was entangled in a lengthy divorce case with his second wife Christine.
Christine filed a case against Wolf for trying to dupe her during their initial divorce settlement case in 2004.
She claimed that the producer’s lawyers claimed at the time his representatives had withheld information that he was negotiating a deal to extend Law & Order’s broadcast on NBC for a whopping $1.6bn at the time and convinced her that the show was making losses.
In 2020, Wolf sold the streaming rights to his Law & Order shows to NBCUniversal for $300 million. Wolf has also invested in stakes in real estate and technology companies. He also owns various properties all around the world, including luxury homes in New York City and Los Angeles.
Wolf might be an extremely rich person but is known to have a down-to-earth attitude and doesn’t like showing off too much. He’s also a philanthropist who is involved with a lot of charitable donations.
While Wolf could have a net worth of $600 million, that could potentially be much higher if someone does a proper audit on his finances and assets – which he has built smartly since earning fame in the 1990s.
