How Much Would It Cost to Be the Great Gatsby?

By Chris Taylor2013-05-09 22:48:37 UTC

The highly anticipated movie from Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby, opens this weekend. Whether or not Luhrmann has done justice to Fitzgerald's quintessential Jazz age novel — or even bested the 1970s Robert Redford version — is open to debate.

What seems clear is that the filmmaker has remained true to one essential component of Gatsby's character — his sheer opulence. The mansion, the clothes, the decadent parties: much of it a desperate snare for Gatsby's doomed love, Daisy Buchanan.

SEE ALSO: The Great Gatsby in 133 Seconds

But how much would it all cost, in today's dollars, if you wanted to replicate the Gatsby lifestyle? Artist Nickolay Lamm, the same guy responsible for these disturbing climate change GIFs, decided to do the numbers.

The answer, according to Lamm's calculations: a cool $34.3 million. The vast majority of that would pay for a 40-acre mansion in the Hamptons, where real estate prices are most definitely not what they were in 1925.

As for the rest of it — well, Lamm's calculations seem a little conservative, if anything. We doubt how many opulent parties you'd be able to throw every other weekend on a budget of $250,000. That $4.3 million on top of your mansion would probably last you a year at most.

Check out Lamm's list below — and let us know in the comments what other hidden costs need to be added to the Gatsby lifestyle.

Images courtesy of Warner Brothers, Myvouchercodes

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