Billy of the Week: Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry, I don't know a lot about him, but I know that he's a baller. Yeah. Incredibly talented. So what's cool about Tyler Perry is like one, he's a billionaire, but Al I mean not a ton of people are billionaires, but like He is I think an unexpected

billionaire in the sense that Oh, 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 it, you're like, Okay, a billion dollars like He works in You know. In the Uh.

Movie slash T V slash um 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 Maybe it won't fifty. So three sixty five million. Oh my god. Leo DiCaprio. How much do you think his net worth is?

A hundred. Two sixty. Serena Williams. Uh, is Serena the oldest or the youngest? She's the Uh, she's the younger one.

Venus is the ultimate. Two hundred? Yeah, so two twenty five. Anyway, I shared the thing. Wait, but what are those what are those uh what's that source? I don't know. I mean some some site on Google. So yeah, take it with a grain of salt. Dude, those sites are bullsh. I if you Google like I I tested this. If you Google a couple of 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. Well, I yeah, I mean definitely take it with a grain of salt,'cause 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 fifty K and another site it'll be like their net worth is fifty million. So it's

It definitely, you know, can vary but the point is 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 ten or fifteen and I've talked to'em, they're like, I wish They're like I got they're like I make like a hundred thousand dollars a year. 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. I believe with him with him, I believe it, because he's on the Forbes list.

Yes, exactly. So Orbs is very reputable for that for that reason. 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 eight hundred bucks. And the person who he's contracting for would like net eighty thousand. 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. And he had a and he had a 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. Yeah, and I 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, um, he struggled to pay rent. He was a bill collector, he sold cars, like he did all types of stuff. Um, but eventually he saved up

enough, which was twelve K 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. Um, and he struggled to pay rent. And um 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 one else would invest in him at the time. But over that decade, I think the play got better. He like Rained in his chops. And basically throughout that decade period, he sold over a hundred million in theater tickets. twenty million in merch.

And Thirty million in just the videos of the plays. Because again he owned the IP, so he can actually make money. He he was just making plays. Like interesting plays.

And Which sounds Simple, but that's like In itself. Oh crazy. So he made these wonderful plays and was it like he made a bunch and then they went And they like

Did he like literally tour and just make like fifty grand a night through um Like hosting it in Atlanta and then Nashville and then like Chicago or wherever. I think that it was just this one play I know I've been changed, but I do think they they did like several tours and it actually one of the t one of the different theaters that he eventually 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 m 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 wanna know. And then and that was a hundred million in over ten years? Yes, exactly. So it's over like a long period of time. That's amazing. Um And so basically he wanted to create, I think a movie next. Um and it 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, Uh, we're not so sure. So basically Tyler had to put up half the money. He said

Look like You know it if I if if this is what it takes, like I'll put up half the money. Um and 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. So the budget By the way, the budget was five point five. So he put up two point uh two two point what's that, three.

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 twenty million dollars total. 'Cause yeah, like the budget was like five mil. He's like we'll be really stoked. And it did over twenty million in weekend one. Um and sin has made over one hundred and fifty million dollars in licensing alone. That's crazy. So like

First of all like I I understand. So He launched the stuff in in the the nineties or uh the plays in the nineties and two thousands. And basically like the black population is I don't know what, twelve percent of America. And so you think like

So you're gonna do a thing dedicated to only twelve percent? of one group, like there's no way that can be big. And He totally proved it r correct because I a hu it's kind of like um in in uh is it Icel where's Bjork from? Iceland?

So I think Iceland. And Iceland doesn't have a lot of people. Um, but Bjork is incredibly famous and I think w 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 kinda why sometimes it's cool to appeal to a smaller but more passionate base than it is to appeal to uh the larger percentage. Yeah, and by the way, Iceland has a population of three hundred and sixty six thousand people. So Is it that small? 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's such a small population. 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 it's like it was the product good or the marketing good. The Icelandic marketing or whatever she's from, that was wonderful because they made her famous. 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 ten episodes first himself. Because again, he's like I can do this. Like I produced a play for ten years. I don't need like To hire a bunch of people. I can do this myself. So he creates ten 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 two hundred million dollars. For him to leave this other network. And he would produce ninety more episodes, and again. He owned the episodes, which is kind of crazy. He owned the IP of those episodes, even after that two hundred million dollar deal. This deal alone is expected to have made him

Uh a hundred and thirty eight million dollars. So His show, his earnings. Then um, you know, people still aren't really paying attention to Tyler for some reason. Um, he continues to make um remember that Lionsgate deal that he did. He continues to make movies with them and over time he makes An eleven film franchise. That's done over a billion in sales and nette 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 bet in twenty fifteen, 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 thirty thousand dollars. Sorry, thirty million dollars at the time, three hundred and thirty acres, and about double the size of a Warner Bros Warner Brothers lot. And he turned it into this like Production.

Base. Or where different like um media companies could go and film shows. So since then, I think like The Walking Dead has filmed there, Black Panther, um and Part of it is he actually like it wasn't just him betting on his city, he saw That in Twitaus eight, 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, I think People are gonna different Production companies. And I bet maybe they they they could have created those incentives just for him. Well I mean this happened the so the law happened in two thousand eight. He did this in two thousand fifteen. So we saw that this was changing, and basically in two thousand seven before that law.

Sixty seven million was spent in at or sorry in Georgia. And then in twenty eighteen it was two point nine billion, much thanks to Tyler and his um investment there. But basically, because of that, then he was also to he's since signed like a hundred and fifty million dollar deer deal with Viacom CBS to run another.

Suite of episodes and he's just like kept going and in 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. Twenty two films. Dozens of plays.

And twelve hundred T V episodes. That's what like his like life work so far, plus this like production base. And he owns much of his work. Even the l the latest hundred fifty million dollar deal. I think he sold it for five years, but after Those five years the rights returned to him. I love Tyler Perry. Is there a Tyler Perry biography out there? I would read that in a heartbeat. He uh I think there's a few.

Go to Ty Google Tyler Perry House. He's got a This Huge spread in outside of Atlanta with a private jet run uh runway. No one has that. Uh that is baller. So I was doing this podcast earlier today with Rob Walling and

I was talking about how HasselCon Because I've met all these like successful people and these billionaires and stuff like that. That I uh I'm like I was like often I'll meet someone like for example

Uh like the founders of Casper or something like that. And I'll say to myself You know, you're like F maybe f you're financially more successful than I am. Maybe. Um and

Like your company's definitely bigger than my company. But I don't think that you're necessarily like if I I don't think you're necessarily twenty times or fifty times more Smart or smarter than I am.

Or however much bigger I was like. Yeah. We're in the same ballpark. You might be a little bit, or maybe even I might be a little bit smarter or even hard working or something like that. The difference is is that maybe you just kept at it. Or there's probably some luck involved or

you um 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 uh pretty successful if we just kinda stick with it 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 they're 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. Uh like I went and just I I saw Hamilton the other day. And I was researching Lynn Manuel, um, and I was like, Oh, you're just a freak.

Like You like Like I was w 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. You are just a different human being and you're more of an alien than you are a a human being. And that's how I feel about Tyler Perry. That's how I feel about like Lynn Manuel or what is his name? Lynn Manuel.

Uh and that's how I feel about like a JK Rowling type. So kudos to Tyler Perry, he deserves it. Yeah, I mean it's crazy he's done like over twelve hundred T V 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 nineteen ninety two. So he's been creating for thirty years straight. And it's like some people are one hit wonders. Like this guy is 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. Yeah, it 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 thirty 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 they 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 w we're not the same.

Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's just like a r 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. 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 wanna be a billionaire? And like every time you ask me, I'm like less sure of the fact that I want to do it because I'm like, yeah, I everyone wants to be a billion. 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. Yes. Uh I think you'll be I you do you definitely don't need that to be happy, that's for sure. About to see my first million Got to the safe and it's filling up Got to the bank is not big enough to see my first a million, million, million

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