Digital Domain Media Group Dan Marino is one of the greatest quarterbacks
in NFL history.
After an astounding 17 year Hall of Fame career, he retired and decided to start his second
life investing and securing his financial future.
However, he threw a $14 and a half Million dollar Hail Mary into Digital Domain Media
Group, the company behind the Tupac hologram.
This investment almost led to Marino's financial downfall.
Luckily he’s still a world-famous former NFL quarterback and he was able to bounce
back.
What was the biggest mistake that Dan Marino managed to avoid?
Playing Career
After a great college career as a Pittsburgh Panther, Marino was drafted by the Miami Dolphins
late in the first round of the 83 NFL draft.
By the time he retired, he'd broken over 40 passing records and became one of the most
celebrated players in the league.
In 1996 he became the first quarterback in history to throw 50,000 career passing yards,
and by 1999 he jumped up another 10,000.
With his crazy stats and the reverence received from other players, it's easy to see why he
was "The Man."
If Football isn't your thing, you may recognize him from some of his other ventures.
By 2002, Marino had a net worth of $45 million between his endorsements and player contracts.
He amassed a decent safety net.
These days he's still heavily involved in the NFL, co-hosting "Inside The NFL" and "The
NFL Today," pulling in $2 million a year just from that.
Digital Domain
You might be curious about where a winner like Marino could go wrong after making so
many right choices.
Well, here's where Digital Domain enters our story.
Digital Domain was founded in 1993 by James Cameron, Scott Ross, and Stan Winston.
The company's goal was to create visual effects for major motion films, and they accomplished
that task with flying colors.
Digital Domain worked on some of the biggest projects in their time.
With fast growth and steady income, Digital Domain seemed like free money to investors.
After internal disputes, some over creative differences, others over the direction the
company was heading, James Cameron walked away from the organization.
In 2006, an affiliate of Wyndcrest Holdings purchased the company, and Dan Marino happened
to be a part of the grab.
He was looking to put his money into Hollywood to carve out his slice of silver screen pie.
With $14 million in the pot, he invested in the company and believed its success was inevitable.
Visual Effects
Right off the bat, they worked on three movies that became classics, True Lies, Interview
with a Vampire, and Color of Night.
Okay, maybe some movies were better than others, but they produced effects for over 100 movies
and made a lot of money during their prime.
They worked with actors such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Leonardo Dicaprio,
and other huge names in Hollywood.
With movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Titanic under their belts, they were no
amateurs.
Their list of accomplishments in Hollywood is far too long to list, but they were very
successful,
In 2011 the company decided to go public.
When this happened, Marino already owned 1.6 million shares or 8.6% of the company.
Marino Movie Magic
A big part of Dan Marino's career came from the polar opposite of Football.
Many times in his life, he turned to Hollywood, or did it turn to him?
Marino wasn't just a brilliant football player; he took his winning smile to the big screen
to see if he could make it among the stars.
However, Marino's acting abilities should be taken with a grain of salt, as he's only
ever played himself as more of an ironic cameo.
His most famous role is definitely in 1994's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective starring Jim Carrey.
You can also see him in Adam Sandler's Little Nicky as he tries to make a deal with the
devil to win a Superbowl.
He's also had the incredible honor of being immortalized on The Simpsons.
He was even in the 2003 action hit of the summer, 'Bad Boys 2.'
He makes a brief appearance as himself, of course, in the passenger side of a car the
'Bad Boys' are commandeering.
His acting career was minor, but like everything "the Magic Man" does, it was memorable.
Marino has seen, attempted, and excelled at it all, well, except for investing.
Icarus Effect
Digital Domain is a prime example of flying too close to the sun.
They were raking in cash but started biting off more than they could chew.
Before they went public, they started to expand themselves by opening up more studios and
eventually getting into the production game.
Like someone riding high off too many victories, they came out swinging by making a heavy investment
in the movie Ender's Game, which flopped at the box office.
However, no failures seemed to deter them as they soared higher and higher.
In 2012, they worked on effects for Coachella and created a hologram of legendary deceased
west coast rapper Tupac Shakur.
This hologram accompanied Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre on stage, performing like he was really
there.
Believing that a service-only effects company was not sustainable, Digital Media put everything
into their production company venture and global expansion.
Overspending led to the company's downfall, as no matter how much it was pulling in, it
couldn't keep up with the bill.
Even if you make 100 million dollars in a year, if your expenses are 110 million, you
lose money.
With offices already in places like Mumbai and plans to take over a 150,000 square foot
complex in Abu-Dhabi, the company grew out of control.
Buying High
Marino bought in at the height of Digital Media's success, scooping up 1.6 Million shares
at about 9 bucks a share.
Marino's total investment equaled $14 Million, and for a company that just brought Tupac
back from the dead, the room for growth was imminent.
And then all of a sudden it wasn't.
Tragedy struck in November of 2012 when the company filed for bankruptcy.
After not being able to hit payroll and with only $50,000 left in the bank, Digital Media
had to shut down their main operation and lay off nearly 300 workers.
Their plan of aggressive expansion left them with $50 million dollars in losses.
It seems even a rising star can fall if it goes too fast.
Maybe the company should have been called Icarus Media.
As for Marino, his shares fell like a rock.
His $14 Million investment was now worth about 800 grand.
Business Deals
Dan Marino always had the mind of an entrepreneur.
However, that didn't necessarily mean he was good at it.
Real estate has always been an attractive option for retired athletes.
Buying expensive homes and then selling them when you're finished sounds simple, but for
most athletes, it's anything but.
Famous athletes seemed to be losing the real estate game left and right.
Stars like Evander Holyfield, Marion Jones, Kevin Garnett, Mike Tyson, Allen Iverson—we
could go on all day—all lost big on the housing market.
Dan Marino was no exception and fell prey just like his fellow competitors.
In 2008 Marino was looking to sell his home and took a deal after not having much success,
resulting in a $600,000 loss.
At the same time, he'd been trying to sell his home in Weston, Florida, for $16 Million.
When no one seemed interested, he put another $1.5 Million worth of designer furniture to
"sweeten the deal."
Eventually, he had to drop it down to $7.5 million, and while it was still a small profit,
it was less than half of the asking price.
It seemed like almost every financial venture he touched went belly-up as soon as he became
involved.
Marino had bought another property that had doubled in value for six years before Marino
bought it.
After his purchase, the value dropped, and he had to sell it for a loss of around $70,000.
Marino seemed to have a knack of buying high and selling low.
Net Worth
Marino’s mistake in investing was getting into businesses he had no edge in.
It’s fine to take shots with house money so to speak, with investments that have a
big upside.
As long as that person knows the risks.
But Anyone that bets big into businesses with money they can’t lose and in areas where
they don’t have an edge, is just gambling.
Marino earned $51 million with the dolphins, and with his fame, we’d hear about any big
investment wins he’s had.
The 14 million dollars Marino invested was a big chunk of what he earned.
But even with those losses, Marino is doing just fine today.
Because Marino still has a post playing career cash flow from doing commentary on games,
the losses he took, although still big, weren’t substantial enough to bring him down.
Having a career after his playing days allowed Dan to avoid bankruptcy, something that plagues
so many professional athletes.
As for Digital Domain, they've bounced around a handful of parent companies and are still
active today.
Just recently, they made effects for Spiderman Homecoming, which was a visually stunning
movie.
While Digital Domain was able to recoup their losses and hop back on the bucking Bronco
that is Hollywood, Marino was left losing millions of dollars
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