How Much Money Did Marty Actually Have In Ozark's First Episode?
Ask any fan of Netflix's "Ozark" what the show is about and they'll probably make some reference to "Breaking Bad" and then talk about all of the various schemes involving money laundering led by series protagonist Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman). Of course, while the series often focuses on the Byrde family's seemingly never-ending abilities to lie, cheat, and steal, the central plot of the series has always been about Marty's specific expertise in cleaning dirty money. Exact figures are occasionally mentioned and it certainly seems obvious that Marty has laundered many hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and the Navarro drug cartel by now.
Notably, Marty has always dealt with shockingly high figures when it comes to drug money, but he wasn't always the most important part of the cartel's operation. As fans of the series will no doubt remember, Marty's entire operation in the Ozarks actually began as a result of a last-ditch effort to save himself from execution. Given how far Marty's various businesses have come in the years since he first relocated his family, it's interesting to look back and remember the dollar figure where this entire affair began.
Marty was worth about $8 million at the start of the series
In "Ozark" Season 1, Episode 1 ("Sugarwood"), Marty insists that he withdraw every dollar of funds he has available at the bank in order to repay the money that his deceased business partner previously stole from the cartel. As we see in various interactions with Del (Esai Morales) and a number of confused bank tellers, this eventually amounts to a total liquidated asset value of $7,973,000.
In a Reddit discussion thread, fans of the series discussed other factors that could suggest Marty's exact level of wealth at this time. In addition to working as a money launderer for the cartel, Marty also ran a lucrative business of his own. "He was definitely a millionaire but it's unclear his exact salary," U/bigmac456 said. "He had a legitimate finance business that he ran the cartel [money] through but presumably had other small clients."
Interestingly, one Reddit commenter used some of Marty's money talk over the years to estimate his typical yearly earnings from the cartel. Noting that Marty indicated a 3% standard fee for his services and that he previously split this income from a $50 million yearly revenue stream with his former business partner, u/ReservoirBaws guessed that Marty's typical salary averaged about $750,000 a year.
Another unique comment on Reddit took note of Marty's original life in Chicago and pulled on real-world circumstances in order to estimate Marty's net worth. "I am very familiar with the area where they had their home and lifestyle," u/Triumph-TBird said "Most of my friends who live around there are likely worth $2-3 million net to have that lifestyle, quality of house, etc. But as far as I know, they are all legitimate. Marty may have had a lot more laundered away."
"Ozark" Season 4, Part 2, the final seven episodes of the series, will be released on Netflix on April 29 (via IMDb).