Nicolas Cage’s $10.5 Million Malibu Mansion Now Sits Next to a Roughly 30-By-60-Foot Crater After Its Driveway Collapsed Toward the Ocean
by Nicole Stawiarski · Thought CatalogUpdated 47 seconds ago, September 9, 2026
Crews arrived around 5:45 a.m. Tuesday for a suspected gas leak and found the driveway and a large section of the private road collapsed. The house was empty and mid-renovation, still standing on pilings while the ground in front of it dropped toward the surf.
The city of Malibu declared a local emergency and ordered 31 homes evacuated after the collapse tore through the driveway and adjacent roadway in front of Cage’s oceanfront home on Sea Level Drive, a private street in the gated Lechuza Beach community.
By evening the crater ran about 25 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide, swallowing asphalt, concrete, fence sections, and a construction porta-potty. Waves were visible crashing under the property through the hole.
Coastal erosion drove it. High surf, generally 6 to 10 feet with larger sets in spots, and high tides from the remnants of Hurricane Marie undermined the ground, rupturing a gas line and damaging a water line. No one was hurt.
Officials initially red-tagged five homes, later raising it to seven for hazardous conditions plus another 24 for losing safe vehicle access. The intact stretch of road is too narrow for fire engines, leaving emergency access severely constrained.
Cage bought the roughly 4,000-square-foot, four-level home in 2024 for $10.5 million. It has glass walls, a rooftop deck, and a hot tub. The main structure still stands on its pilings, and how long the evacuation holds is unclear as more high tides and forecast strong El Niño conditions threaten further erosion this winter.
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