‘South Park’ Creators Sign $900M Deal With ViacomCBS To Make 14 Movies, More Episodes

“We did a South Park movie in 1999, and we’ve never done another one because the show has been so satisfying,” Stone told Bloomberg. “Now we’re older, and the idea of what streaming movies can be is pretty promising.” The upcoming movies will introduce new concepts and characters to the South Park world. The first will debut before the end of the year.

The deal makes good ViacomCBS’s stated intention to build its animation slate around tried-and-tested IP, with South Park as the centerpiece. The arrival of new movies as part of this strategy was teased a year ago.

Ironically, the streaming rights to South Park currently lie with Warnermedia’s HBO Max, one of Paramount+’s main competitors. The streamer picked the show up for a whopping $500M-plus over five years in 2019. The new movies will thus help fill a gaping hole in Paramount+’s offering.

Rival entertainment companies like Warnermedia and Disney have also fallen back on familiar franchises to entice customers to new streaming platforms. But even in the context of the heated streaming marketplace, ViacomCBS is making a big commitment to South Park. And with reason: now 23 seasons in, the series remains the most popular on Comedy Central.

As of June, ViacomCBS had over 42 million subscribers across its streaming services, which include Paramount+, BET+, and Showtime.