American actor, director Tyler Perry is now, according to Forbes ‘Hollywood’s newest billionaire’.
The 51-year-old
entertainer owns the entirety of his creative output, including more than 1,200
episodes of television, 22 feature films, and at least two dozen stage plays,
as well as a 330-acre studio lot at the edge of Atlanta’s southern limits.
According to the
American business magazine, Perry has a networth of $1 billion and has earned
more than $1.4 billion in pretax income since 2005. Forbes also reported that
filmmaker owns the entirety of his creative output, which includes more than
1,200 television episodes, 22 films, at least two dozen plays and a 330-acre
studio lot in Atlanta.
The filmmaker told
the magazine that he learnt the value of ownership at a young age. He said;
"My father was
a subcontractor, and he would get paid on Fridays and be so happy that he had
made $800," he recalled to Forbes. "But I would watch the man that
owned the house sell it and make $80,000. So I always knew that there was more
power in the man that owned the house rather than the man that actually was
working on it and building it. So I always wanted to be the guy that owned the
house.
"Ownership for
me was easy because I was underestimated. They said, 'Sure, you can own it.'
They didn't think it'd be worth anything."
On lack of
diversity in his movies, Perry said;
"I wanted to
foster an environment where minorities and women and LGBTQ, anybody who wanted
to come and work and do a great job was welcome. What I found is, if you invest
in the underdog, if you invest in the people who haven't had the opportunity,
the level of gratitude and understanding for what is happening for them is so
powerful. It's just wonderful."
The mogul joins a
group of Black billionaires that includes Robert F. Smith, Michael Jordan,
Oprah Winfrey, David Stewart, Jay-Z and perhaps Kanye West. It was also
reported that his movies alone have grossed nearly $1 billion to date, and he
owns the rights to all of them.
Forbes reported
that Perry used his ownership of all his creative output to broker a deal with
ViacomCBS that pays him $150 million a year for new content and gives him an
equity stake in BET+, the streaming service it debuted last September. He has
homes in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as well as
two private jets.
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