Tyler Perry has earned a whopping $1.4 billion over the past 15 years and is now in the lofty world of billionaires, joining the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Ted Turner, according to a detailed Forbes magazine cover story.
Forbes estimates Perry’s net worth at $1 billion, and he’s knocking on the door of the Forbes 400 most wealthy people in the world.
In the story with a cover headline of “The Ultimate One Man Show,” Perry is described as a renegade, a man who has forged his own path, leaving naysayers in his wake.
His biography is now the stuff of legend, especially the time he was homeless and living out of his car before his stage plays became major moneymakers, enabling him to enter the world of TV and film. He said he had no mentors growing up, though Oprah Winfrey ended up providing him sage advice over the years. He learned by doing. And he did it without support from traditional Hollywood, building a loyal, critic-proof, churchgoing Black female fan base that was especially his.
He writes, directs and most importantly, owns everything he creates, a key element in his ability to build wealth.
“I mostly go on my gut and my instinct,” Perry told Forbes. “I like to challenge the system and see what I can do differently.”
“Ownership,” he added, “changes everything.”
Forbes estimates his 2020 earnings at $97 million, ranking him No. 6 on the Celebrity 100. (Model and social influencer Kylie Jenner tops the list, followed by hip-hop star and presidential candidate Kanye West and tennis star Roger Federer.)
And the numbers Forbes throws out are incredible. At age 51, Perry has created 1,200 episodes of TV, 22 feature films and more than two dozen stage plays. He owns his own 330-acre studio. Viacom CBS pays him $150 million a year to create content for its networks, including BET and Nickelodeon. He has a stake in the BET+ streaming service. He owns two private planes and four homes in New York, Los Angeles, Douglasville and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
It also breaks down his $1 billion net worth in a pie chart, ranging from the value of his entertainment library ($330 million) to straight cash and investments ($300 million) to the value of his studio ($280 million.)
The Forbes story, which is comprehensive to say the least, was in the works for a year.
Credit: Forbes magazin
Credit: Forbes magazin
