South Park fans rejoice. Any fears that the long running animated series will soon be coming to an end after almost a quarter of a century on television can be put to rest.
Series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have signed a mammoth $900 million deal to not only continue the show, but also make 14 South Park movies exclusively for Paramount+.
The deal ensures that South Park will run for at least six more seasons on Comedy Central, while the first Paramount+ movie is slated to be released by the end of 2021. South Park is notorious for its ability to make a topical show in just one week, so while a movie by the end of the year sounds incredibly fast, they shouldn’t have much of a problem hitting that deadline.
The South Park films will premiere exclusively on Paramount+ through 2027. Obviously ViacomCBS Inc., Paramount’s parent company, see South Park as an important factor in the bid for more subscribers.
We’ve seen some big deals go down recently, usually involving Netflix. The streaming giant spent $450 million on Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out sequels, then undisclosed (but reportedly very large) sums to secure Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes and American Horror Story‘s Ryan Murphy to exclusive creator deals. But this almost-billion dollar deal is possibly the largest in television history.
Parker and Stone said in a statement:
“When we came to ViacomCBS with a different way to produce the show during the pandemic, Chris (McCarthy), Nina (Diaz), Keyes (Hill-Edgar) and Tanya (Giles) were immediately supportive and enabled us to try something new that turned out to be really well received. We can’t wait to get back to doing traditional South Park episodes but now we can also try out new formats.”
MTV-Entertainment CEO and Paramount+ Adult Animation CCO Chris McCarthy added: “Matt and Trey are world-class creatives who brilliantly use their outrageous humor to skewer the absurdities of our culture and we are excited to expand and deepen our long relationship with them to help fuel Paramount+ and Comedy Central.”
It’s hard to imagine what 14(!) South Park movies will revolve around, but Stone and Parker shouldn’t have much trouble coming up with ideas with an extra $900 million in their pockets.
Even though this is a huge price to pay, the show remains incredibly popular, so it’s probably a good bet by ViacomCBS that this will lead to more subscribers and a stronger foothold for Paramount+ in the streaming wars.
#Peace.Love.SouthPark
