South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are still working on the rest of the show’s 24th season, but all this time they were also closing a staggering mega-deal that will see the kids of the series live on for six more seasons. Plus, the new deal could potentially lead to much more content from the series’ masterminds.
Comedy Central has been South Park's home ever since the show premiered back in 1997, which in itself is owned by ViacomCBS, the parent company for whom Parker and Stone are signing this contract that is expected to be among the most lucrative in TV history. However, this new deal will not be exclusively limited to South Park, as Parker and Stone are also set to work on at least 14 movies made for streaming at a rate of two per year.
Since South Park's Pandemic and Vaccination specials were quite successful in terms of ratings, expectations will be high for the first of these projects, which is expected to be a movie release later this year, all set in the world of South Park according to Bloomberg’s report. This new agreement is reported to be worth around $900 million, though no breakdown on the specifics of how that money will be distributed is available at the moment. The spinoff movies to be produced under the terms of the new deal will be made for the company’s Paramount Plus streaming service.
After 24 years, the show's longevity streak puts it right up there with the likes of the Simpsons and Doctor Who, with no signs of the franchise slowing down as the creative duo look to produce their third South Park video game too. In the streaming era, franchises such as South Park are of immense value, so the deal represents a clear victory for Viacom after losing out the streaming rights to the series to HBO Max.
With such a massive contract and bright future ahead of them, it’s no wonder Parker and Stone have deep enough pockets to invest in fun passion projects like saving South Park's very real Casa Bonita restaurant from bankruptcy. Nevertheless, Parker and Stone securing this kind of financial stability shouldn’t be too surprising considering the duo were always ahead of their time when they launched South Park Studios back in 2007, a site where fans stream episodes for free that is still available in many parts of the world.
Putting the series aside, Parker and Stone’s last movie was Team America: World Police. So it will definitely be interesting to see what kind of content they work on besides South Park for the next six years.
South Park airs on Comedy Central.
Source: Bloomberg