How Did the ‘South Park’ Creators Just Become Billionaires? The Answer Is an Important Lesson For Every Entrepreneur

By Jeff Haden, Inc.com | A small deal point in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s original contract with Comedy Central paid lasting dividends. This is a tale of three deals. Deal one: in 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sold the copyright for Superman to Detective Comics, Inc., for $130. Two paragraphs in the contract will sound familiar to freelancers and independent contractors:

In consideration of $130 agreed to be paid me by you, I hereby sell and transfer such work and strip, all good will attached thereto and exclusive right to the use of the characters and story, continuity and title of strip contained therein, to you and your assigns to have and hold forever and to be your exclusive property and I agree not to employ said characters by their names contained therein or under any other names at any time hereafter to any other person firm or corporation, or permit the use thereof by said other parties without obtaining your written consent therefor.

The intent hereof is to give you exclusive right to use and acknowledge that you own said characters or story and the use thereof, exclusively.

The word “exclusive” is familiar to entrepreneurs who have signed work-for-hire agreements: I did the work, you paid me, therefore the work product — and any profit, or loss — is all yours.

Years later, Siegel and Shuster sued, asking for the rights to Superman and a “just share” of all profits (no freelancer later argues they should share in a loss) from comic books, radio serials, merchandise, etc. They lost, sued again, lost, appealed, lost… each court determined they had transferred their original rights to Superman and, when the original copyright expired, the renewal rights.

While the original 13 pages Shuster and Siegel sold for $130 to Detective Comics turned out to be the foundation of a multibillion-dollar business, Siegel and Shuster weren’t legally entitled to share in that success.

Sound fair? Yes and no, depending on where you sit.
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Read more about deals that could affect you – as they did Steve Vai
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Deal three: South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are each reportedly worth $1.2 billion, in large part due to $935 million overall deal signed in 2021 and the recent $1.5 billion streaming agreement with Paramount+.

How? Primarily because of a deal point their lawyer insisted be included in their original contract with Comedy Central. According to a New York Times article:

Comedy Central’s boilerplate reserved to the network any income generated by the show through other network divisions.
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Read the full story here with comparisons on the three deals:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/how-did-the-south-park-creators-just-become-billionaires-the-answer-is-an-important-lesson-for-every-entrepreneur/

This post originally appeared at inc.com.

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