What was Sumner Redstone's net worth?
Sumner Redstone was an American media mogul who had a net worth of $2.6 billion at the time of his death in August 2020 at the age of 97. His net worth peaked at around $5 billion in 2015.
Sumner Redstone was a powerful and controversial American media magnate who built one of the most influential entertainment empires in modern history. He began his career as a lawyer and served in military intelligence during World War II, but his fortunes changed when he joined his family's small chain of drive-in movie theaters, National Amusements, in the 1950s. Under his leadership, the company expanded dramatically, and Redstone used it as a vehicle to acquire some of the most prominent media companies in the world.
In the 1980s, Redstone engineered a hostile takeover of Viacom, transforming it into a media powerhouse. Viacom went on to acquire major assets including MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures. In 2000, he added CBS to his portfolio, further cementing his status as a titan of the industry. Through National Amusements, Redstone maintained controlling stakes in both Viacom and CBS—even after the companies split in 2006 and later re-merged in 2019 as ViacomCBS (now known as Paramount Global).
Redstone was known for his aggressive business tactics, unyielding control, and insistence that "content is king." Despite fierce industry rivalries and boardroom battles, he remained at the top of the media world for decades. His later years were marked by public legal disputes, questions about his mental capacity, and a dramatic power struggle over control of his companies.
He officially stepped down as chairman of both CBS and Viacom in 2016, passing day-to-day control to trusted executives and eventually his daughter, Shari Redstone. Sumner Redstone died in 2020 at the age of 97, leaving behind a legacy defined by ambition, controversy, and a lasting impact on the global entertainment landscape. His rise from a local theater operator to one of the most formidable figures in media is one of the most remarkable stories in American business.
Early Life
Sumner Murray Rothstein was born on May 27, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts, into a family of extremely modest means. They lived in a tenement without a working toilet, and financial hardship was a defining feature of his early years. His grandfather operated a bakery supply business, and his father, Mickey Rothstein, worked as a truck driver for the company. During Prohibition, Mickey supplemented the family's income by transporting illegal liquor. When Prohibition ended, he parlayed his earnings into a legal wholesale liquor distribution company and later ventured into entertainment, opening one of the country's first drive-in movie theaters and a nightclub.
Around this time, the family changed its surname from Rothstein to Redstone. Sumner, who was in high school at the time, later admitted in his autobiography that the name change deeply upset him. He believed it represented an effort to distance the family from their Jewish identity and heritage.
Sumner went on to attend Harvard University, where he was selected to join an elite, government-sponsored team tasked with decoding Japanese military communications during World War II. After graduating, he earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and began his career in public service. One of his earliest assignments as a government attorney involved a landmark antitrust case against Paramount Pictures, which ultimately led to the dismantling of the Hollywood studio system and reshaped the film industry.
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
National Amusements
In 1954, at the age of 31, Sumner Redstone joined his family's modest drive-in theater business. Determined to transform it into something much larger, he renamed the company National Amusements and began expanding aggressively across the country. One of his earliest innovations was embracing and popularizing the concept of the multiplex—a theater complex that could screen multiple films simultaneously, maximizing profits and audience reach. This strategic shift helped National Amusements become one of the most profitable and influential theater chains in the U.S.
Redstone reinvested the company's theater profits into acquiring stakes in major entertainment and media firms. His ambitions grew with each deal. In 1987, he executed a bold $3.4 billion hostile takeover of Viacom, a cable and syndication company that owned MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, and other valuable assets. In 1993, Redstone set his sights on Paramount Pictures. Although initially offering $8.2 billion, a bidding war forced him to increase his bid to $10 billion. To help finance the acquisition, he engineered a merger between Viacom and Blockbuster Video.
It was during this aggressive phase of expansion that Redstone famously declared, "content is king"—a phrase that became a guiding mantra for the modern media industry. Under his leadership, Paramount released a string of major hits, including the record-breaking "Titanic" and the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, reinforcing Redstone's belief in the long-term value of owning intellectual property.
In 1999, Redstone orchestrated a $37 billion acquisition of CBS, creating the largest media merger in history at that time. However, the deal proved less fruitful than expected. Viacom's stock underperformed for years, leading Redstone to split CBS and Viacom into two separate companies in 2006. More than a decade later, in a move spearheaded by his daughter Shari Redstone, the two entities were re-merged into what is now known as Paramount Global.
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Sumner Redstone was married twice. His first marriage, to Phyllis Gloria Raphael, lasted 52 years and produced two children: Brent and Shari Redstone. The couple divorced in 1999, after which Sumner grew increasingly estranged from Brent but remained closely involved with Shari, who would later take over his media empire. In 2003, he married Paula Fortunato, a former schoolteacher who was 39 years his junior. That marriage ended in divorce in 2008.
In his later years, Redstone's personal life attracted as much attention as his boardroom battles. By the 2010s, he was frequently described as reclusive and increasingly isolated, surrounded by a rotating cast of girlfriends, caretakers, and legal advisors. In 2016, explosive court filings revealed that Redstone had spent tens of millions of dollars on a handful of women, often giving lavish gifts in exchange for companionship or sexual favors. Among the most sensational disclosures: he gave $18 million to a flight attendant who worked on the CBS corporate jet, then reportedly had a sexual relationship with her sister, to whom he gave $6 million. He also gave $21 million to an aspiring reality show producer and another $6 million—and a job at Showtime—to a friend of his grandson's girlfriend.
These revelations led to a series of lawsuits from former girlfriends, associates, and even family members. Redstone's mental competency was frequently called into question, with legal battles erupting over who controlled his estate, his medical care, and ultimately, his multibillion-dollar media empire. These conflicts continued even after his death in 2020, with ongoing lawsuits alleging manipulation and financial abuse by those closest to him in his final years.
Despite the chaos of his personal life, Sumner Redstone left behind an unmatched legacy in the media world. He built one of the most powerful entertainment empires of the 20th century, but his twilight years were marked by scandal, legal drama, and family infighting that complicated his final chapter.