Benedict Cumberbatch has two really famous addresses. 221B Baker Street and 177A Bleecker Street.
There's no connection, but Cumberbatch has played both Sherlock Holmes, from BBC's Sherlock, who lives on Baker, and Marvel's Dr. Stephen Strange, who lives on Bleeker at the Sanctum Sanctorum. Both geniuses have also added substantially to Cumberbatch's $40 million net worth.
When you think about it, Cumberbatch is really good at playing really intelligent characters, both good and evil.
Along with the genius "consulting detective" Holmes and the ex-neurosurgeon, Dr. Strange, the actor has also played the master codebreaker, Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, one of the most famous painters, Vincent van Gogh, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He's also played the evil mastermind, Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, and the evil Paul Marshall, who got away with rape in Atonement. And we can't forget another genius mastermind, the Grinch, and the clever dragon Smaug.
All of these intelligent characters and many more have contributed to Cumberbatch's net worth. Here's how they affected it.
He Didn't Have His Breakout Role Until 'Sherlock'
The Cumbercollective, as Cumberbatch calls his fan group, will know Cumberbatch first as Sherlock, because the character was his first big breakthrough role since his acting debut in 2002.
Before Sherlock, Cumberbatch first starred in small roles in television. After working his butt off for two years, he landed a small yet memorable role as Stephen Hawking (another genius character, and this time before Eddie Redmayne) in Hawking. It earned him his first nomination for a BAFTA TV Award.
This was the first in a few patterings that led to stardom for Cumberbatch. Next came the series To the Ends of the Earth in 2005, which showed that he could play a leading role and in a period drama.
In 2007, he starred in Joe Wright's Atonement, playing Paul Marshall, the child rapist that sends James McAvoy's character Robbie to jail. As IndieWire explains, Cumberbatch was able to blend into the film perfectly and played the evil character with skill. It was after this performance that Sherlock creators, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, knew he'd be a great Holmes.
Another notable role was the Alan Turing-like mathematician, Stephan Ezard in The Last Enemy. Even though this was before The Imitation Game, Cumberbatch was still treading in dangerous territory with this "introverted-recluse-genius" role. If he didn't change it up, he'd likely be typecast.
The only difference between Ezard and all Cumberbatch's past and future introverted geniuses is that this character "is a completely original, fictional, creation. Without the weight of history or previous material over his head." So he was basically given the artistic freedom to do whatever he wanted with the role.
With another role in Small Island and Painted with Words under his belt, Cumberbatch was cast in Sherlock and when it premiered, it catapulted him into stardom. Having experience with The Last Enemy, Cumberbatch was once again perfect for the role that demanded he plays a character who's constantly in his own little intellectual world.
Cumberbatch reportedly earned about $559,000 per season, and during the show's third season, in 2014, Cumberbatch won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. Not even Sherlock could have seen it coming.
After Getting Recognition For 'Sherlock' Roles Kept Coming In
Inbetween playing Sherlock from 2010 to 2017, Cumberbatch once again blended perfectly in high-profile films such as Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and War Horse in 2011. The next year, he got his second Emmy nomination for Parade's End and started voicing the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
He went on to star in six films in 2013, including blockbusters like Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, in which he was paid $230,000, The Fifth Estate, August: Osage County, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Then came The Imitation Game, in 2014, which earned him an estimated $1.2 million and nominations for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG, and Academy Award for Best Actor. This was one of his most important years, and according to some, the year that truly made him a star. And all of it was happening while he was still playing Sherlock.
He closed out his role as Smaug with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies that same year too and went on to make $946, 000 for Black Mass.
Then things got even stranger when Cumberbatch was cast as Dr. Strange. Being cast as a leading man in a Marvel film is big, and as usual, Cumberbatch didn't disappoint.
According to Screen Rant, he walked away with an estimated $4.7 million for Doctor Strange (he earned about $3.4 million for his debut as the character), Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame combined. He's rumored to receive $9.6 million for Doctor Strange 2.
After he finished Sherlock in 2017, Cumberbatch appeared in the series Patrick Melrose and voiced the Grinch and Shere Khan in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle in 2018. In 2019, he also appeared in 1917 for about two minutes. Director Rian Johnson joked on Twitter that the film's director, Sam Mendes, had to pay Cumberbatch $23 million for waiting to do his scene.
Along with all his work in film and TV, he's also done a lot of radio work for the BBC, narrated nature documentaries for National Geographic and Discovery, and audiobooks. He's also found time to star in a couple of theater productions.
He also reportedly gets $300, 000 for endorsement deals, guest show appearances, and photoshoots. He co-founded a production company called SunnyMarch, which focuses on projects made by women as well. For all of this, it is estimated that he receives anywhere between $1.7 million and $5 million per year. That salary might go up though as he appears in more Marvel films (there are already two in the waiting).
Cumberbatch has already done a superb job of worming his way into our psyche year after year, making so many different dimensions with his characters. If we don't see him, we're probably hearing him in something. He's all around us, just like Dr. Strange.