One contract clause 29 years ago made the ‘South Park’ creators billionaires
Aug 15, 2026, 8:32 AM | Updated: Aug 20, 2026, 7:40 pm
They killed Kenny and made a billion dollars doing it.
29 years ago, on August 13, 1997, four foul-mouthed, construction-paper kids from a Colorado mountain town debuted on Comedy Central.
“South Park” is still going strong — and creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are now each worth $1.2 billion.
Parker grew up in Conifer. Stone is from Littleton. They met at CU Boulder, made a cartoon with scissors and glue, and parlayed it into a $1.5 billion Paramount streaming deal.
But here’s what’s wild: back in that original 1997 contract, they negotiated a clause giving them 50 percent of all digital revenue — forever. At the time, digital meant nothing. Nobody cared. It was like Monopoly money.
That one throwaway line is now considered one of the greatest contract clauses in TV history — and a main reason they’re billionaires today. Congrats Matt and Trey for sticking it to the man.
The 1997 digital revenue clause laid the foundation, but it’s really the combination of that clause plus the streaming era plus 29 years of the show staying relevant that made them billionaires.
And what did these hometown billionaires do with the money? They bought Casa Bonita — Lakewood’s iconic pink palace of cliff diving and sopapillas that we all went to as kids and got sick from. The renovation was supposed to be 7-8 million but ran about $50 million.
Parker told Jimmy Kimmel, “We would have been the richest comedians, except we decided to buy a restaurant.” Casa Bonita now welcomes 12,000 visitors a week. They expect it will be about another 14 years of cliff diving before they see real profits. Love those guys.
Season 29 premieres September 29. Contracts will keep them going through 2030. Only in Colorado. Isn’t it wonderful?!
Read more here about their billionaire status.
