How Frozen Supercharged Kristen Bell’s 2026 Net Worth — Inside Her Biggest Paydays

Kristen Bell just got a massive bump on paper. The always-busy actor now sits at a combined $80 million net worth with husband Dax Shepard, per Celebrity Net Worth. That figure used to hover around $40 million, and if you are wondering what changed: two chilly little sequels called Frozen 3 and Frozen 4.

Frozen money: who is getting what and when

TheWrap says Bell, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad are all back for Frozen 3 and 4 with a huge raise. Each was offered a $60 million deal that is not a single check but a package: an upfront $20 million plus back-end bonuses paid out over time, tied to production and performance.

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the two sequels in 2023. THR reported that in September 2024, original director Jennifer Lee stepped down as chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios to return and direct Frozen 3. That film is dated for November 24, 2027. Frozen 4 does not have a public release date yet.

• Frozen 2 salaries: Bell, Menzel, and Gad each made $15 million. What they earned for the first film in 2013 has not been disclosed.
• Budgets: both Frozen and Frozen 2 cost about $150 million to produce.
• Box office: Frozen did $1.27 billion worldwide; Frozen 2 did $1.45 billion. Franchise total sits around $2.76 billion so far (per The Numbers) and is on track to challenge Toy Story for top-grossing animated franchise status.
• Studio profit: Deadline estimated about $400 million in profit for Frozen and $600 million for Frozen 2.
• Scores snapshot: Rotten Tomatoes has Frozen at 89% and Frozen 2 at 77%; IMDb averages are 7.4/10 and 6.8/10.

Other checks: Gossip Girl, The Good Place, and that Netflix rom-com

Gossip Girl rumors have been wild for years. The Cinemaholic floated that Bell earned $125,000 per episode as the narrator across the original run, which would push her take past $15 million for 121 episodes. That number feels off when you stack it next to what the on-camera leads made at the time. For context: Blake Lively reportedly made $60,000 per episode. When the reboot hit, Parade said Bell likely got $125,000 per episode there.

On The Good Place, Variety listed Bell at $125,000 per episode in 2016. Across 53 episodes, that is roughly $6.25 million if the rate stayed flat. Parade noted she likely received raises as the show took off, so the real total would be higher.

Netflix comedy Nobody Wants This paired Bell with Adam Brody and pulled in three Emmy nominations out of the gate, including Outstanding Comedy Series and acting nods for both leads. The success triggered a speedy renewal cycle: season 2 dropped October 23, 2025, and season 3 is slated for 2026. According to the Irish Daily Mail, Bell was at $50,000 per episode in season 1 and jumped to $250,000 per episode in season 2, bringing her running total on the series to about $3 million so far.

Receipts meet community property

California is a community property state, which Dax Shepard has cheerfully pointed out while joking about Bell's Frozen 2 payday on Conan. He has also bragged about her negotiation chops. In an interview with Money.com, he said:

"What is interesting about Kristen is she knows her value and her worth, and she will fight for it in contract negotiations, but once that happens she will never think again about that money. She likes to give away most of her money, so I have to make sure we are making decisions that allow her to do that and still be building something for when we stop working."

Bell told the same outlet she is not a big spender and that she and Shepard are intentional about teaching their kids the value of money. Their daughters are Lincoln (2013) and Delta (2014).

Career quick tour

Bell started in high school productions, studied musical theater at NYU Tisch, then dropped out to make her Broadway debut in 2001's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. She also appeared in The Crucible on Broadway with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. The big break came in 2004 with Veronica Mars, then she added the omnipresent narrator gig on Gossip Girl a couple of years later. Film roles followed (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bad Moms), along with high-profile TV runs (The Good Place, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, and now Nobody Wants This). Voice credits beyond Frozen include Zootopia, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.

Ads, side hustles, and the one that went bust

Bell does a lot of brand work. With 15.9 million Instagram followers, Cosmopolitan estimated she could be pulling around $70,000 per sponsored post. She and Shepard did multi-year Samsung campaigns starting in 2014 and running at least through 2020, and she has appeared in ads for Lightlife (also with Shepard), Houzz, Neutrogena, Enterprise, and La-Z-Boy. She even teamed with Idina Menzel for an American Express spot. On the business front, she co-founded Hello Bello in 2019, a plant-based baby-care line with an exclusive Walmart deal that reportedly did about $10 million per year. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2023, listing $100 million in liabilities. Her 2020 skincare brand Happy Dance CBD was promoted and sold through Ulta.

Houses and holdings

Bell and Shepard live in Los Feliz in a 4,400-square-foot place they bought for $4.3 million in 2017. It now gets valued in the $6-8 million range and includes a living room, open kitchen, four bedrooms, 4.5 baths, a library, a big garden, a pool, and a patio, per Architectural Digest. They also own at least two residential apartment buildings in Los Angeles. One Mid-City property cost them $800,000. That landlord status has drawn criticism for contributing to gentrification. During the early COVID-19 shutdowns, they declined to accept rent for April 2020. Shepard's sister manages the buildings for them.

Who is richer: Kristen or Dax?

Short answer: Kristen. Celebrity Net Worth pegs their joint tally at $80 million, and it is assumed she is responsible for north of $60 million of that. Parade puts Shepard around $12 million, with his hit podcast Armchair Expert being the recent moneymaker. For what it is worth, when they got married in 2013, he was the higher earner. He has laughed about declining a prenup back then and how the tables have turned.

What is next

Bell has Frozen 3 and 4 on the way, more Nobody Wants This with season 3 in 2026, and she is in the sequel to the Christmas action-comedy Violent Night alongside David Harbour, Daniela Melchior, and Jared Harris.