Billy of the Week: Tyler Perry

Sam Parr (@theSamParr) sits down with Steph Smith (@StephSmithio), indie creator and host of the "Sh*t You Didn't Learn in School" podcast, to talk about Tyler Perry and how he was able to become a billionaire in the entertainment industry. _____ * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. * Would you like to participate in our clips contest? Earn up to $10k by remixing My First Million episodes. To learn more, go to mfmpod.com/clips. * Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sam Parr?

  Tyler Perry, I don't know a lot about him, but I know that he's a baller.

• 0:04Steph Smith?

  Yeah.

• 0:04Sam Parr?

  And he's incredibly talented.

• 0:06Steph Smith?

  So what's cool about Tyler Perry is like, one, he's a billionaire, but I mean, not a ton of people are billionaires, but like, he is, I think, an unexpected billionaire in the sense that some people haven't even heard his name, right? And there's a lot more people who you would think are more well-known, who at least at first glance have done more things, but he's done a ton of things, but just to compare, you're like, okay, a billion dollars, like, he works in, you know, in the movie slash TV slash play industry. So like, okay, that doesn't sound so crazy, but like, Taylor Swift, guess what her net worth was? I pulled this earlier this year, so it's probably way higher, but.

• 0:45Sam Parr?

  Maybe what, 50?

• 0:47Steph Smith?

  So 365 million.

• 0:48Sam Parr?

  Oh, my God.

• 0:49Steph Smith?

  Leo DiCaprio, how much do you think his net worth is?

• 0:52Sam Parr?

  100.

• 0:53Steph Smith?

  260. Serena Williams?

• 0:56Sam Parr?

  Uh, is Serena the oldest or the youngest?

• 0:59Steph Smith?

  She's the, uh, she's the younger one. Venus is the oldest.

• 1:02Sam Parr?

  200?

• 1:04Steph Smith?

  Yeah, so 225. Anyway, I share those because.

• 1:06Sam Parr?

  Wait, but what are those? What's that source?

• 1:10Steph Smith?

  I don't know. I mean, some, some site on Google. So yeah, take it with a grain of salt.

• 1:13Sam Parr?

  Dude, those sites are bullshit. If you Google, like, I tested this. If you Google a couple people's net worth, some of my personal websites come up number one, and I just made this shit up, and I've seen people cite it.

• 1:25Steph Smith?

  Well, I, yeah, I mean, definitely take it with a grain of salt, because I've definitely Googled some of this stuff before, and you'll see someone, and one site will be like, their net worth is like 50K, and another site, it'll be like, their net worth is 50 million. So it's, it definitely, you know, can vary, but the point is.

• 1:38Sam Parr?

  I've, through the podcast, I've met one or two, like, celebrities who, if you Google, they'll be like, yeah, they're worth 10 or 15, and I've talked to them, they're like, I wish, they're like, I got, they're like, I make like $100,000 a year.

• 1:50Steph Smith?

  Yeah, okay, so Tyler Perry is, like, at least, I think he was, like, written about by several different publications. I think they verified, he's a billionaire.

• 1:57Sam Parr?

  I believe with him, with him, I believe it, because he's on the Forbes list.

• 2:01Steph Smith?

  Yes, exactly. So basically.

• 2:03Sam Parr?

  Forbes is very reputable for that, for that reason.

• 2:05Steph Smith?

  His story is awesome because he basically, I mean, he didn't start out with much. So he used to, when he was younger, he used to watch his dad subcontract and his dad would make 800 bucks. And the person who he's contracting for would like net 80,000. And he remembers thinking at the time, like, I always knew there was more power in the man that owned the house rather than the man working on building it. So I wanted to be the guy who owned the house. So he like, very early on, understood the principle and the importance of ownership.

• 2:32Sam Parr?

  And he had, and he had, he had a messed up childhood. I think he was molested a little bit. I think his dad was abusive. This guy went through a lot.

• 2:38Steph Smith?

  Yeah. And he was also a high school dropout. So when he dropped out of high school, he was, you know, he was doing a bunch of different odd jobs. He struggled to pay rent. He was a bill collector. He sold cars. Like, he did all types of stuff. But eventually, he saved up enough, which was 12K to rent an Atlanta community theater. So this was his first bet. He basically wrote this play himself. It was called, I Know I've Been Changed. And he started running this play. And you're probably thinking like, oh, okay, overnight success. No, it was really bad at first. And he struggled to pay rent. And he actually worked on this play for over a decade. He produced the play, he sold the tickets, he designed the set, he sold the snacks. So he was like, doing the whole thing because no

• 3:23Steph Smith?

  one else would invest in him at the time. But over that decade, I think the play got better. He like, reined in his chops. And basically, throughout that decade period, he sold over 100 million in theater tickets, 20 million in merch, and 30 million in just the videos of the plays. Because again, he owned the IP, so he could actually make money.

• 3:44Sam Parr?

  He, he was just making plays, like, like, interesting plays. And, which sounds simple, but that's like, in itself, crazy. So he made these wonderful plays. And was it like, he made a bunch, and then they went to different, and they like, did he like, literally tour and just make like, 50 grand a night through, like, hosting it in Atlanta, and then Nashville, and then like, Chicago or wherever?

• 4:09Steph Smith?

  I think that it was just this one play, I Know I've Been Changed, but I do think that they did like several tours and it actually, one of the, one of the different theaters that he eventually ended up at. So remember, he was just at this like Atlanta Community Theater to start. He ended up, you know, at the acclaimed Fox Theater. So he like moved his way up and I think this one play, I Know I've Been Changed, um, kind of helped unlock some things for him. So that was his start. He started with plays, but even then, you know, that hundred plus million, a lot of that was in theater tickets. I don't know how much profit he made from that. So the next thing is he basically said, okay, I want to do something new.

• 4:39Sam Parr?

  And that was a hundred million in over 10 years?

• 4:42Steph Smith?

  Yes, exactly. So it's over like a long period of time.

• 4:45Sam Parr?

  That's amazing though.

• 4:46Steph Smith?

  And so basically he wanted to create, I think, a movie next. Um, and he basically wanted to create, it was called like The Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which, um, is pretty funny. And, and he definitely knows his audience, right? So he, he's definitely like tailored his career towards, um, you know, an audience that he understands really well. But when he wanted to create this, he basically, yeah, like no one would take him up on it. He's looking for a distributor. Um, and the only people that will take him up on it and act as his distributor was Lionscape. But even then Lionscape was like, ah, we're not so sure. So basically Tyler had to put up half the money. He said, look, like, you know, if, if, if this is what it takes, like I'll put up half the money. Um, and

• 5:25Sam Parr?

  How much was it?

• 5:26Steph Smith?

  The nice thing about that, I'm not sure how much it was actually, but, um, the great thing about that deal, which you'll see throughout every deal he does.

• 5:34Sam Parr?

  So the budget, by the way, the budget was 5.5. So he put up 2.2, 2. what's that, 3?

• 5:41Steph Smith?

  Nice. So with that deal though, he owned and controlled the content. So basically every deal he's done, like he's, he's owning that IP. So the Lionscape CEO basically said, like before it was released, like if this makes $20 million total, because yeah, like the budget was like five mil, he's like, we'll be really stoked. And it did over 20 million in weekend one. Um, and since then is made over 150 million dollars in licensing alone.

• 6:07Sam Parr?

  That's crazy. So like, first of all, like, I, I understand. So he launched this stuff in, in the, the nineties or not the plays in the nineties and 2000s. And basically like the black population is, I don't know what, 12% of America. And so you think like, so you're going to do a thing dedicated to only 12% of one group? Like there's no way that can be big. And he totally proved it correct because

• 6:38Sam Parr?

  It's kind of like, um, in, in, uh, is it Iceland? Where's Bjork from Iceland? So I think Iceland and Iceland doesn't have a lot of people. But Bjork is incredibly famous. And I think the reason is, is like Iceland had so much pride that a huge chunk of the Icelandic population was like, oh, we love Bjork. Therefore, once they start seeing her succeed, they get behind her and they go Bjork is awesome. And that's almost what happens here a little bit. And that's kind of why sometimes it's cool to appeal to a smaller, but more passionate base than it is to appeal to the larger percentage.

• 7:13Steph Smith?

  Yeah. And by the way, Iceland has a population of 366,000 people. So

• 7:18Sam Parr?

  Is it that small?

• 7:19Steph Smith?

  Very small. I remember I had a friend on exchange from Iceland and she told me not jokingly, they have a dating app that makes sure that you are not related to someone that you are dating because it is such a small population.

• 7:31Sam Parr?

  And hey, they made, and Bjork sucks. Sorry if you're a Bjork fan, but objectively she, she sucks. It is not good music. So like, it was definitely, you know, they say is like, it was the product good or the marketing good? The Icelandic marketing or whatever she's from, it was wonderful because they made her famous.

• 7:48Steph Smith?

  That's so funny. Um, anyway, so that was his first foray into movies, but then he kept going. Okay. So he's done play, then he's done a movie and now he wants to do TV. Okay. So he goes and basically he goes and creates 10 episodes first himself. Because again, he's like, I can do this. Like I produced a play for 10 years. I don't need like to hire a bunch of people. I can do this myself. So he creates 10 episodes first. He sells it to one network called CW and they air it and the ratings are through the roof. People absolutely love it. And because of that, it caught the attention of another network, which basically was like, hey, can we steal this? Um, and they did, and they struck a deal for $200 million for him to leave this other network and he would produce 90

• 8:28Steph Smith?

  more episodes. And again, he owned the episodes, which is kind of crazy. He owned the IP of those episodes, even after that $200 million deal. This deal alone is expected to have made him $138 million. So his show, his earnings. Then, you know, people still aren't really paying attention to Tyler for some reason. He continues to make, remember that Lionsgate deal that he did? He continues to make movies with them. And over time, he makes an 11 film franchise that's done over a billion in sales and netted him, specifically him individually, over $290 million. Because again, he always owned the copyright. And then Tyler made one, I mean, I'm sure he's made other bets, but one really big

• 9:12Steph Smith?

  bet in 2015, which basically this whole time, he's like an Atlanta native, right? And he, he kind of saw the potential for the city. And so he bought a plot of land worth $30,000, sorry, $30 million at the time, 330 acres, and about double the size of a Warner Bros., Warner Brothers lot. And he turned it into this like production base, where different like media companies could go and film shows. So since then, I think like The Walking Dead has filmed there, Black Panther. And part of it is he actually like, it wasn't just him betting on his city. He saw that in 2008, Georgia had changed the tax law. So there were certain incentives for production companies. So we saw these incentives and he said, you know what?

• 9:57Steph Smith?

  I think people are, different production companies.

• 9:59Sam Parr?

  And I bet, maybe they, they could have created those incentives just for him.

• 10:03Steph Smith?

  Well, I mean, this happened, so the law happened in 2008. He did this in 2015. So we saw that this was changing. And basically in 2007, before that law, 67 million was spent in, or sorry, in Georgia. And then in 2018, it was 2.9 billion, much thanks to Tyler and his investment there. But basically because of that, then he was also to, he's since signed like $150 million deal with ViacomCBS to run another suite of episodes. And he's just like kept going at an every juncture. He's made sure to own what he's producing. And so now he like has, listen to this, he's basically amassed 22 films, dozens of plays, and 1,200 TV episodes.

• 10:47Steph Smith?

  That's what like his like life work so far, plus this like production base. And he owns much of his work, even the latest $150 million deal. I think he sold it for five years, but after those five years, the rights returned to him.

• 10:59Sam Parr?

  I love Tyler Perry. Is there a Tyler Perry biography out there? I would read that in a heartbeat. I think there's a few. Go to Google Tyler Perry house. He's got a this huge spread in outside of Atlanta with a private jet runway. A runway. No one has that. That is baller. So I was doing this podcast earlier today with Rob Walling and I was talking about how at HustleCon, because I've met all these like successful people and these billionaires and stuff like that, that I I'm like, I was like, often I'll meet someone like, for example, like the founders of Casper or something like that. And I'll say to myself, you know, you're like, maybe you're financially more successful than I am, maybe.

• 11:41Sam Parr?

  And like, your company is definitely bigger than my company. But I don't think that you're necessarily like, if I, I don't think you're necessarily 20 times or 50 times more smart or smarter than I am, or however much bigger. I was like, you know, like, we're in the same ballpark. You might be a little bit, or maybe even I might be a little bit smarter or even hardworking or something like that. The difference is, is that maybe you just kept at it, or there's probably some luck involved. Or you, you kind of like landed on the right idea. Like, you're not like significantly better than me. And therefore, that's why I believe that most people can accomplish something interesting, of course. Like, it definitely takes luck and like all this crazy other stuff to become a billionaire. But like, we can all become pretty successful if we just kind of stick with it,

• 12:26Sam Parr?

  because the intelligence isn't that big of a factor in order to achieve some success. However, I see guys like Tyler Perry. And I see the work that they like their output and their genius. And I think, well, we're just not the same. You're just better than me. Like, you are so good at what you do. Like, I went and just, I saw Hamilton the other day and I was researching Lin-Manuel. And I was like, oh, you're just a freak. Like, you like, like, I was watching it and I was like, I don't even like musicals. But the fact that someone was so brilliant that they came up with this and put this together, that like, I understand, you should be a billionaire. Like, you should have it all. You should, or like, when I read Harry Potter, I'm like, how on earth does one person invent this in their brain? You, you're better than me. You and I, we are not the same.

• 13:10Sam Parr?

  You are just a different human being and you're more of an alien than you are a human being. And that's how I feel about Tyler Perry. That's how I feel about like Lin-Manuel, or what is his name, Lin-Manuel? And that's how I feel about like a J.K. Rowling type. So kudos to Tyler Perry. He deserves it.

• 13:25Steph Smith?

  Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. He's done like over 1,200 TV episodes. Like, you have to be just like so good at what you do to be able to do that for like, I think his first play came out in 1992, so he's been creating for 30 years straight. And it's like, some people are one-hit wonders. Like, this guy's not a one-hit wonder. He like, he knows what he's doing. He's like honed in his craft. And so, yeah, it's like, super cool. I remember, I got a lot of flack for this, but I like, once tweeted something about like Jeff Bezos. I think he had like resigned and I was like, this guy's been working on this company for 27 years. Like, how rare is it that someone works on anything for even like five years straight? And these guys, like Tyler Perry as well, like, he's just like worked on his craft for decades. Like, that's insane.

• 14:07Sam Parr?

  Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think that, um, like, we were talking about on this podcast, I was like, you know, I think I could become a billionaire if I wanted to. I just, you have to be willing to dedicate like 30 years to it. Like, I'm definitely smart enough and I, and I work pretty hard. Um, I just don't know if I'm like, if I like want to spend the time doing it. And, and, and, and I think a lot of people who achieve greatness, they're not much different. Except there are people, I was like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. I was like, you just have more horsepower than I do. Like, you're just different. And I'm gonna put Tyler Perry in that category. You just, you just, we're just, we're not the same. You know what I mean?

• 14:41Steph Smith?

  Yeah, I know.

• 14:42Sam Parr?

  It's just like, it's like a race car versus like, you know, not a race car. Like, there's just no amount of modifications can I make my car as fast as that.

• 14:49Steph Smith?

  Yeah, you have to like have so much horsepower to want to do this for so long, which is why you're, you ask me all the time. You're like, you want to be a billionaire? And like, every time you ask me, I'm like, less sure of the fact that I want to do it. Cause I'm like, yeah, everyone wants to be a billionaire. Everyone wants to like amass, well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people are like, yeah, I'd love to live like a great life, but a lot of people don't want to put in that effort. And now I'm questioning, like, I think I'll actually be pretty happy with less than a billion.

• 15:14Sam Parr?

  Yes, uh, I think you'll be, you do, you definitely don't need that to be happy, that's for sure.