Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-creators of South Park, recently expressed their interest in buying the Casa Bonita restaurant that they featured on their show. Now, due to their massive new deal with ViacomCBS, Parker and Stone will soon have the financial freedom to do almost anything they want.
Parker and Stone have signed a $900 million dollar contract that will extend South Park into its 30th season in 2027, as announced on the official South Park site. The pair noted in the announcement that “The Simpsons did it” first — but it’s still a landmark milestone for the animated franchise.
However, that was only part of the big announcement. Thanks to the deal, Parker and Stone will produce 14 new South Park original movies for Paramount+ streaming service, with the first two movies premiering this year. Parker and Stone previously brought South Park: Bigger Longer, and Uncut to theaters in 1999 then collaborated on the Team America: World Police movie in 2004.
To celebrate the news, Parker and Stone issued a joint statement.
“Comedy Central has been our home for 25 years and we’re really happy that they’ve made a commitment to us for the next 75 years,” said Parker and Stone. “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. It’s great to have partners who will always take a chance with us.”
“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,” added MTV Entertainment President and CEO, Chris McCarthy. “Franchising marquee content like South Park and developing new IP with tremendous talent like Matt and Trey is at the heart of our strategy to continue growing Paramount+.”
The one potential drawback is that the streaming rights for the South Park series are currently tied up with HBO Max, thanks to a deal that gives the competing streaming service exclusive rights to the series’ existing library. The new South Park movies will allow Paramount+ to feature its franchise without disrupting the previous deal, and presumably, every season of South Park TV will eventually migrate to Paramount+ once the contract with HBO Max expires.
