Smaug Tops List of Fictional Billionaires, Joined by Salander, Wayne, Stark and Cullen

With the coming release of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, the recent release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the excitement over "Game of Thrones", the release of The Avengers around the world, the upcoming release of The Dark Knight Rises, the coming 25th season of "The Simpsons" and this year signalling the end of the Twilight franchise at the movies with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, Forbes' "Fictional 15" list is extraordinarily timely on top of pain-stakingly detailed.

Topping the list is the dragon Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and if you're wondering how much effort was put into the list. Here's a snippet from Michael Noer's original research, which was then questioned by Tolkien fans prompting him to revisit his list once again this year:

Taking into account a variety of factors including the estimated length of a dragon (64 feet), how many scales he has on his belly (822), the percentage of air in the treasure mound (30%) and the price of gold, silver and diamonds I estimated the ancient wyrm to be worth $8.6 billion.

Fans targeted his valuation of the "Arkenstone of Thrain" and the price of mithril armor and as a result Smaug's value has jumped 7-times his previous worth making him richer than Bill Gates. Even still, the comment section at the site bring into question these results with statements such as this one from a commenter named "bensknott":

Don't forget it's specifically mentioned that Frodo's mithril armor is worth enough to buy the entire Shire. I'm not sure how much the Shire is worth, but I’m willing to bet Smaug has several sets of mithril armor meant for creatures larger than a hobbit.

The first reply to that comment by Michael himself, "But what is the Shire worth?" How much indeed.

Clearly this is nothing more than estimates and a bit of fun, but I found it interesting and wanted to pass it on along with a video exploring the creation of the list.

1. Smaug, "The Hobbit" ($62 billion)
2. Flintheart Glomgold, "Uncle Scrooge" ($51.9 billion)
3. Carlisle Cullen, "The Twilight Saga" ($36.3 billion)
4. Jed Clampett, "The Beverly Hillbillies" ($9.8 billion)
5. Tony Stark, "Iron Man" ($9.3 billion)
6. Richie Rich, "Richie Rich" ($8.9 billion)
7. Charles Foster Kane, Citizen Kane ($8.3 billion)
8. Bruce Wayne, "Batman" ($6.9 billion)
9. Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump ($5.7 billion)
10. Mr. Monopoly, Monopoly ($2.5 billion)
11. Lisbeth Salander, the "Millennium" series ($2.4 billion)
12. Tywin Lannister, "Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire" ($2.1 billion)
13. C. Montgomery Burns, "The Simpsons" ($1.3 billion)
14. Robert Crawley, "Downton Abbey" ($1.1 billion)
15. Jo Bennett, "The Office" ($1 billion)

Thanks to Slashfilm for the heads up.