‘Ozark’ Fans Try to Calculate Marty Byrde’s Ill-Gotten Net Worth
What’s Marty Bryde’s net worth? Here's what we know about the Jason Bateman character’s financial situation as Netflix thriller 'Ozark' returns.
April 21 2022, Published 3:53 p.m. ET
They say crime doesn’t pay, but the characters of Ozark seem to do pretty well for themselves, don’t they? We’re only days away from the April 29 premiere of Season 4 Part 2, the final batch of episodes for the Netflix thriller, meaning we’ll soon find out whether Marty and wife Wendy survive their money-laundering scheme unscathed. But fans have long wondered: what's Marty Byrde’s net worth?
“How rich is [Marty] Byrde? Estimated net worth?” one fan wrote on Reddit in 2020, asking about the Jason Bateman character. “They had $8 million when they left Chicago, right? But that was to compensate for [the money stolen by Marty’s business partner]. They sold their house for $40,000. Then they wash $50 million with a fee of 30 percent? And how much do they get from the casino? I’m bad at math.”
Bad at math? Maybe. Bad at plot details? Yes. Here’s what we know.
The Byrdes might end up rich, but they’re probably not the richest characters on the show at the moment
As other Reddit users clarified in that thread, the Byrdes didn’t get $40,000 for their house, they got $40,000 over asking. And their fee for washing the $50 million is 3 percent, not 30 percent. But beyond that, Marty’s net worth is a bit of a mystery, especially because the Byrdes have had business interests in the Missouri Belle Casino, the Blue Cat Lodge, and the Lickety Splitz strip club.
“3 percent of $50 million is $1.5 million, plus whatever profit they have made from the Missouri Belle/Blue Cat/Lickety Splitz, plus whatever the total value of their assets are,” one Reddit user commented. “I don’t know if those numbers are ever really discussed so it’s kind of hard to say with any accuracy.”
In ScreenRant’s seemingly unscientific ranking of the wealthiest Ozark characters in July 2021, the Byrdes didn’t even break the top five. The couple fell behind Kansas City mafioso Frank Cosgrove, drug growers Jacob and Darlene Snell, cartel lawyer Helen Pierce, businessman Charles Wilkes, and cartel leader Omar Navarro.
The Byrdes are not at the place that Marty thought they would be at, Jason Bateman says
In a Deadline panel in April 2022, Ozark showrunner Chris Mundy explained how the show will focus on “active choices” in the final episodes. “Do Marty and Wendy really want to stay together? Do the kids really want to be a part of this family? … It really all sort of circles in on itself, in terms of family, and what they’re willing to do to try to stay together, and whether or not that’s a good choice.”
Bateman, meanwhile, said that his Marty’s slower-than-expected progress is humbling for the character. “[Marty] always felt like he was a bit smarter than he was,” Bateman said. “Like, he’d gain a little intelligence in each episode but never really enough to get them out of it by the next episode. Here we are at the end, and I think he’s gotten smart enough, or become ethical enough, to be done with it all, but I don’t think he or the family are at the place he thought they’d be at, and he’s forced to be humble a little bit.”