Meet The Only Billionaire Actor In The World

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

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, uh, movie/TV/play industry, so, like, OK, that doesn't sound so crazy, but Taylor Swift, guess what her net worth was. I pulled this earlier this year, so it's probably way higher.

Maybe, what, $50 million?

So, $365 million.

Oh my god.

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

$100 million.

$260 million. Serena Williams?

Uh, is Serena the oldest or the youngest?

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

200?

Yeah, so 225.

Anyway, I shared those videos. 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 bullshit. I, if you Google, like, I, 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.

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 $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, 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 'em. They're like, I wish. They're like, I got, they're like, I make like $100,000 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 Forbes 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 $800 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.

And 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 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 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 can actually make money.

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, 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 did like several tours, and 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, kind of helped unlock some things for him. So that was his start. He started with plays. But even then, you know, that $100+ 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—

and that was $100 million in over 10 years.

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

That's amazing though.

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 he definitely knows his audience, right? So 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 Lionsgate. But even then, Lionsgate was like, uh, we're not so sure. So basically Tyler had to put up half the money. He said, look, like, you know what, if, if this is what it takes, like, I'll put up half the money. Um, and how much was 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 $5.5 million, so he put up $2.2 million. What's that, $3 million?

Nice. So with that deal, though, he owned and controlled the content. So basically every deal he's done, like, he's owning that IP. So the Lionsgate CEO basically said, like, before it was released, like, if this makes $20 million total, because yeah, like, the budget was like $5 mil, he's like, we'll be really stoked. And it did over $20 million in weekend one. Um, and since then has made over $150 million in licensing alone.

That's crazy. So like, First of all, like, I, I understand. So he launched this stuff in, in the, the '90s, or not the plays, in the '90s 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 gonna 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 I'm— it's kind of like, um, in, in, uh, is it Iceland? Where's Björk from? Iceland? So I think Iceland. And Iceland doesn't have a lot of people, um, but Björk 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 Björk. Therefore, once they start seeing her succeed, they get behind her and they go, Björk 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.

Yeah. And by the way, Iceland has a population of 366,000 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 is such a small population.

And hey, they made— and Björk sucks. Sorry if you're a Björk fan, but objectively, she— She sucks. It is not good music. So like, it was definitely, you know, they say it was like, it was the product good or the marketing good. The Icelandic marketing or wherever she's from, it 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 10 episodes first himself. Because again, he's like, "I can do this. I produced a play for 10 years. I don't need 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?" And they did. And they struck a deal for $200 million for him to leave this other network and he would produce 90 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 $1 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 bet in 2015, which basically this whole time he's like an Atlanta native, right? And 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 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 could have created those incentives just for him.

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— Wow. 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 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 22 films, dozens of plays, and 1,200 TV 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 latest $150 million deal. I think he sold it for 5 years, but after those 5 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 Google Tyler Perry house. He's got a, this huge spread in outside of Atlanta with a private jet 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 at HustleCon, 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, maybe you're financially more successful than I am, maybe. Um, 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 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 kind of 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 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. Uh, like I went and just, I, I saw Hamilton the other day and I was researching Lin-Manuel. Um, 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. 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 the name? Lin-Manuel. And that's how I feel about like a J.K. Rowling type. So kudos to Tyler Perry. He deserves it. 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 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 5 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's pretty cool. I think that, 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 work pretty hard. Um, I just don't know if I'm like, if I like wanna 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 run, we're not the same. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I know.

It's just like, I'm gonna, 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 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, I, 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.

Yes, I think you'll be— 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, it's not big enough.

About to see my first million, million, million. My first million!