So sad. Whitney, who was reportedly broke and depressed about her money woes before she died, will now make major bank for her estate!

Whitney Houston was reportedly broke at the time of her death, but you can expect the late-singer’s estate to benefit from her untimely passing.

“Whitney didn’t own the rights to her songs so the only way she could make big money alive was through touring,” Jo Piazza, author of Celebrity, Inc: How Famous People Make Money, tells HollywoodLife.com. “And she wasn’t up for it.”

“In death several things will happen. Her life rights will likely be sold for book and movie deals into the tens of millions of dollars,” Jo explains. ”And her movie, Sparkle, which she produced, will do way better at the box office than it would have had she been alive.”

Whitney’s post-humous film also has an ace up its sleeve, as far as the box office receipts are concerned, Jo adds. “Sparkle was not going to be guaranteed hit before, but because it contains her last two songs, now it absolutely will be a giant money maker around the world. Her estate will reap the benefits from that.”

– Denise Warner

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