Tyler Perry Makes His Debut On Forbes Billionaire List

Words by: Sentwali Holder

It’s official, Tyler Perry is officially a billionaire, by Forbes assessment. The big money publication just dropped their annual billionaire list. And on this year’s elite list includes 2,755 people. That’s insane, that there are nearly 3,000 billionaires out there that we know of … But what’s interesting are the 493 first-time billionaires that include none other than Kanye West, newly minted Kim Kardashian and Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry.

The creator of the wildly successful Madea franchise and owner of one of the newest, state of the art studios in America, emerged on the list at number 2,677 amassing $1 billion from projects including the Haves and Have Nots, Tyler Perry’s Sistas, and Tyler Perry’s The Oval among other notably credits.

This news hit last year, after an extensive Forbes profile, where it was revealed that the multihyphenate media tycoon is now a “Hollywood’s newest billionaire.” But here’s a breakdown on how … His library of movies, TV shows, plays, etc., as he owns 100% of the content he’s created ($320 million), cash and investments ($300 million), Tyler Perry Studios ($280 million), his BET+ stake ($60 million) and homes and toys ($40 million).

Forbes said: “He has honed a product that too many others viewed as destined for the discount bin. And he made sure to control it all. 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. He used that control to leverage 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. Forbes estimates Perry has earned more than $1.4 billion in pretax income since 2005, which he used to buy homes in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as well as two planes.”

Also on the list, and don’t get to sick but the usual suspects include Amazon’s Jeff Bezos earns the No. 1 spot with a whopping $177 billion. Elon Musk was second with $151 billion. Jay-Z is on the list at No. 2,141 with a net worth of $1.4 billion.