How Trey Parker and Matt Stone make and spend their millions: from the South Park and Book of Mormon creators’ streaming deals with HBO Max and Hulu, to a Kendrick Lamar collab and deepfake ventures

Feb 9 , 2024

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have made their fortune off their popular animated series as well as their show, The Book of Mormon. Photo: Getty Images

The masterminds behind the hit animated series and Broadway show bought the Casa Bonita restaurant in Denver and are looking into starting a marijuana business after Tegridy Weed

The South Park catalogue is estimated to be worth US$1 billion, and the pair also signed an agreement of more than US$900 million to create content for Paramount+

You may not think too hard about the animated shows you watch to unwind after a long day, but behind your favourite characters is a billion-dollar industry. Just ask South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Through the iconic TV show, a hit theatre production, and some smart business deals, the pair have cemented their position among the richest comedians and creators alive today. Parker is worth US$600 million, while Stone’s net worth stands at US$700 million, per Celebrity Net Worth.

Here’s a more detailed look into where they get their money – and how they like to spend it.

How did South Park become so popular?

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker became friends as early as 1992. Photo: Getty Images

Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971 in Houston, Texas) and Randolph Severn “Trey” Parker III (born October 19, 1969 in Conifer, Colorado) met in film school at the University of Colorado in 1992.

Per Entertainment Weekly, the idea for the creative duo’s hit show South Park came while messing around as they worked on films in university. “We would always talk like these little kids and make each other laugh. So we had a year of doing little skits with the voices before we shot anything,” Parker explained.

Their first skit, The Spirit of Christmas aka Jesus vs Frosty, was a massive hit on campus. With US$1,200 in borrowed funds, per The Washington Post, the pair moved to Los Angeles, hoping to develop the idea further. The pair soon got a deal with Comedy Central for South Park.

Years later, as the show’s popularity grew, Parker and Stone would strike several multimillion-dollar deals, including nine-figure deals for streaming rights.

In 2015, AV Club reported that streaming service Hulu paid a then-record US$192 million for the right to stream every episode of the show that’s been produced. Four years later, Variety reported Stone and Parker signed a US$550 million deal to put the show on the HBO Max streaming platform.

The characters of South Park on Red Rocks in the US. Photo: @southpark/Instagram

A year into that deal, the pair signed an agreement of more than US$900 million with ViacomCBS to create new South Park episodes and films for Paramount+, reported Bloomberg. The deal ended up more lucrative for the pair because, as reported by The New York Times, Parker and Stone negotiated a lucrative 50/50 split on all digital revenue – forever.

The deals sparked a legal battle between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount over exclusivity, reported CNN.