Yes, you read that headline right. Proving without a doubt that fortunes can be made in the absolute weirdest ways, there is someone in the world who became a billionaire thanks to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Actually a multi-billionaire. That someone is Haim Saban. Mr. Saban has just listed his longtime Malibu mansion for a mighty morphin $75 million.
According to the real estate records I was able to find, Haim and his wife Cheryl bought this property in October 1987 for $1.4 million. They performed a major gut renovation in the early 1990s. Today, the home, which sits on 120 feet of ocean frontage, contains nine bedrooms and 12.5 bathrooms across 11,000 square feet of living space. If you can't afford their $75 million asking price, it is also available to rent for $300,000 per month. Here is a video tour:
Who Is Haim Saban?
Haim Saban was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1944. He spent his 20s playing bass in a band called The Lions of Judah. The band experienced very modest success, briefly touring some nightclubs in London.
In the 1970s, Haim shifted his focus to songwriting. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles where he soon found success composing theme songs and music for children's TV shows. Along with a writing partner, he composed music that was used in dozens of shows, notably "Dragon Quest," "Inspector Gadget," "She-Ra: Princess of Power," and "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." You remember the theme song to "Inspector Gadget"? Haim and his writing partner wrote it.
During this era Haim composed around 4,000 songs, earning several million dollars in royalties over the ensuing decades. He reportedly had earned $2.5 million in royalties through 1999 alone.
In 1988, Haim founded Saban Entertainment to produce television programs. A few years earlier, on a visit to Japan, he saw a bizarre show where Spandex-clad teenagers did martial arts. He bought the North American rights (eventually he bought the show outright) and produced a pilot on his own. The show was called "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." The pilot and eventual series were dirt cheap to produce because he actually repurposed much of the content from the Japanese version of the show. No one could tell the characters in fight sequences were Japanese because they wore full-body costumes. Some of the dialogue was simply dubbed over, somewhat poorly, but kids didn't notice or didn't care.
Saban's pilot was rejected by every studio in Hollywood except one: Fox. Fox green-lit, a series. That series became a massive success in the mid-1990s.
Saban Entertainment went on to produce more than 70 projects, including "A.L.F.," "V.R. Troopers," "Sweet Valley High," "Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog," and "Digimon: Digital Monsters." In 1996, Saban Entertainment merged with Fox Children's Network (which was owned by News Corporation) to form Fox Kids Worldwide. In 2001, Haim and News Corporation sold Fox Children's Network to The Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion, leaving Saban with a profit of around $1.6 billion. Through a complex tax sheltering system arranged by his tax adviser, Saban didn't pay a cent in taxes on the deal.
The Power Rangers languished under Disney, and in 2010, Haim re-acquired the rights to the franchise for $100 million. In 2018, he sold the franchise to Hasbro, which was already making the brand's toys, for $522 million.
Today, Haim Saban's net worth is $5 billion.
Outside of their soon-to-be-former Malibu mansion, Haim and Cheryl Saban own a four-acre estate with a 22,000-square-foot mansion in the ultra-exclusive gated community of Beverly Park. Based on similar recent sales, this mansion is probably worth $100 million. You can see the Saban's Beverly Park mansion at the 4:50 mark of this drone video. Please note their insane lawn and guest/tennis house:
