Suzanne Collins Net Worth

What Is Suzanne Collins' Net Worth?

Suzanne Collins is an accomplished American television writer and novelist with a net worth of $90 million. She is renowned for authoring the best-selling series "The Underland Chronicles" and "The Hunger Games" trilogy, which includes "The Hunger Games," "Catching Fire," and "Mockingjay." Collins' books have collectively sold over 85 million copies worldwide.

Early Life

Suzanne Collins was born on August 10, 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut. Her parents are Jane Brady Collins and Lieutenant Colonel Michael John Collins, a U.S. Air Force officer who served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. Suzanne, the youngest of four children, spent her childhood in the eastern United States due to her family's frequent relocations. She graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham in 1980 as a Theater Arts major and earned her Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University Bloomington in 1985. In 1989, she completed a Master of Fine Arts in dramatic writing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Early Career

In 1991, Collins started her professional writing career on children's television shows, contributing to several Nickelodeon programs including the Emmy-nominated "Clarissa Explains it All" and "The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo." She served as the head writer for Scholastic's "Clifford's Puppy Days" and received a Writers Guild of America nomination in animation for co-authoring the Christmas special "Santa Baby." Collins also wrote stories for the Emmy-nominated "Little Bear" and "Oswald," and freelanced for "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" Her transition to writing children's books was influenced by her colleague, James Proimos, which led to the creation of "Gregor the Overlander," the first book in her "The Underland Chronicles" series. From 2003 to 2007, Collins added several titles to the series. She also penned the rhyming picture book "When Charlie McButton Lost Power," illustrated by Mike Lester, in 2005.

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"The Hunger Games"

In September 2008, Collins released "The Hunger Games," the first book of a trilogy that was inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and her father's military career. The trilogy's subsequent books, "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay," were published in September 2009 and August 2010, respectively. The series achieved massive success, with 1.5 million copies of the first two books printed within 14 months in North America alone. "The Hunger Games" remained on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for 60 consecutive weeks. Lions Gate Entertainment acquired the film adaptation rights in March 2009. Collins co-adapted the novel with screenwriter Billy Ray and director Gary Ross, ensuring the movie's fidelity to the book. The first film, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, was released on March 12, 2012, and earned $694.4 million globally. The sequel books were also adapted into films, with the final book split into two parts.

Time magazine named Collins one of its most influential people in 2010, and in March 2012, Amazon announced her as the best-selling Kindle author of all time. Collins had written 29 of the 100 most highlighted passages in Kindle ebooks.

In June 2019, Collins announced "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," a prequel to "The Hunger Games," which was released on May 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The book explores the life of President Coriolanus Snow 64 years before the original trilogy. A film adaptation is also in development.

In September 2013, Collins released "Year of the Jungle," an autobiographical picture book illustrated by James Proimos, about the year her father was deployed to Vietnam. The book has been sold in 12 territories and 11 languages.