At the very young age of just six months old, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen landed the role of Michelle Tanner on what would turn out to be the incredibly popular and successful show, Full House. Their star power was already clear, as they beat out nine other sets of twins for the role and went on to coin the very well known phrase "you got it, dude".
Full House ran for eight seasons. Mary-Kate and Ashley were nine months old in the first few episodes and were eight when the show ended. At this point, the twins were well recognized child stars. And even though Full House came to an end, Mary-Kate and Ashley were just getting started. Nobody knew it at the time, but those cute blonde haired angelic twins would go on to build an empire. They were ranked as the 11th richest women in entertainment by Forbes in 2007 and now, at age 34, have an estimated combined net worth of $500 million. So how did they do it?
Mary-Kate and Ashley started racking in the cash thanks to a very generous paycheck from Full House. According to People Magazine, the Olsen twins started off making around $2,400 per episode. That salary grew quite nicely to $25,000 per episode and then, eventually, reached upwards of $80,000 per episode.
Not only was Full House paying nicely, but the show also accelerated the twins' acting career. They began staring in their own films and founded Dualstar Entertainment Group when they were just seven years-old. Through the company, they produced The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley and You're Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley's..., a successful series of direct-to-video movies, in addition to made for television films like Double, Double Toil and Trouble, Passport to Paris and To Grandmother's House We Go. They made their feature film debut in 1995 with It Takes Two and went on to star in Getting There and New York Minute, which was their last feature film together. You could also see the twins on the small screen, as they had two live-action shows, Two of a Kind and So Little Time and one animated series, Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! following Full House. They also made guest appearances on shows such as 7th Heaven and had a cameo voice role on The Simpsons.
In conjunction with Dualstar, the Olsens produced a book series, also called The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley, as a package deal with their videos of the same name. 44 books were published. They also had a revenue generating fan club. Through the club, fans would pay for Mary-Kate and Ashley's collectibles and photos and each club subscription included a copy of the twins' very own fan club magazine, Our Funzine. More recently, they published Influence, which features interviews with Karl Lagerfeld, Diane Von Furstenberg and more of fashion's biggest names and icons.
Upon their 18th birthdays, the Olsens became co-presidents of Dualstar, which gave them full legal control of the company. By the time they were 21, Dualstar was selling $1 billion in Mary-Kate and Ashley merchandise a year.
After acting, Mary-Kate and Ashley decided to focus on fashion. They developed a line for Walmart that covered everything - ready to wear clothes, shoes, accessories and body care products. Then they moved to couture and created The Row in 2006, which is sold at Barneys and other high-end retailers. As of 2019, The Row was generating between $100 million and $200 million in sales annually, according to Business of Fashion. Their other brand, Elizabeth and James, which is a contemporary sportswear line, has an estimated revenue of $89 million per year. The twins have also collaborated with J.C. Penney on a women's clothing line called Olsenboye and they have a t-shirt line called StyleMint.
In addition to being fashion designers, they also became the face of American fashion label Badgley Mischka in 2006 and, as part of Badgley Mischka's ad campaign, appeared in Vogue, Elle, InStyle, and Vanity Fair. Mary-Kate and Ashley are the creative directors for the Italian fashion shoe brand Superga and, thanks to their impact on the fashion world, are members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a non-profit trade association of over 450 prominent American fashion and accessory designers. The organization named them Womenswear Designer of the Year in both 2012 and 2015 and Accessories Designer of the Year in 2014.
With her soon to be ex-husband and French banker, Olivier Sarkozy, Mary-Kate made some very significant real estate investments. As reported by Cosmopolitan, the couple has owned several New York City townhouses, including one that they listed for $8.3 million and another worth an estimated $7.5 million.
Mary-Kate and Ashley are clearly quite the team. Together, they have four Young Artists Awards, two Kids Choice Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Maybe it really does take two.
Source: Washington Post, Screenrant, Celebrity Net Worth, Forbes, People Magazine, Wikipedia, Refinery29, Business of Fashion, Cosmopolitan
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