Nicolas Cage’s Malibu mansion still teeters on the brink of collapse more than a week after a massive sinkhole tore open the coastal road beneath it.
The 62-year-old actor purchased the $10.5 million beachfront property in 2024, but now faces a staggering repair battle after the chasm swallowed the only access route to his gated Sea Level Drive community. The sinkhole opened at approximately 5:45 a.m. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, and has since deepened into a crater measuring 25 to 30 feet deep and roughly 30 by 60 feet wide.
Aerial photographs reveal shattered concrete, torn-up earth and heavy equipment surrounding the gaping void, with crews operating from a boom lift directly over the wreckage. Waves continue slamming the coastline just beyond the homes, compounding the erosion threat.
The disaster forced evacuation of 31 oceanfront residences. Malibu officials declared a local emergency at 6 p.m. The same day, red-tagging seven homes for structural danger and another 24 because emergency vehicles could no longer safely reach them.
The collapse triggered a gas leak, prompting crews to shut off both gas and water lines to the area. Adding to the alarm, emergency responders had already visited the exact same property just two days earlier, on Sept. 6, for a gas main break at the location.
Geologists and engineers are now racing against further deterioration to shore up the area, protect home foundations and build temporary coastal erosion barriers. Their longer-term plan calls for filling the crater and rebuilding the destroyed road, though no timeline has been announced for completion.
Severe coastal erosion caused the collapse, according to the source material, with powerful surf, high tides and waves generated by Hurricane Marie stripping away the soil beneath the private road. The combination of extreme weather and fragile coastal geology transformed a scenic driveway into a yawning pit.
Cage, known for films including “Face/Off,” “Con Air” and “Gone in 60 Seconds,” has not publicly commented on the damage to his residence.
The Sea Level Drive community remains isolated, its emergency access severed and its multimillion-dollar homes perched precariously above an increasingly unstable shoreline. For Cage and his neighbors, the stunning ocean view has become a direct threat, with each wave bringing fresh risk of further collapse.
City officials continue monitoring the expanding sinkhole as contractors work to prevent the destruction from spreading to additional properties along the battered coast.