Following the immense success they’ve found with both South Park and the award-winning musical, The Book of Mormon, The NY Times are reporting that the duo’s shingle will have an estimated value of $300m., built from revenue from the above, as well as funds they’ve raised elsewhere.
With such an impressive figure at their disposal, the company will have the power to approve and produce television, movie, and theatre projects, with the report suggesting that a movie version of The Book of Mormon is likely to be on the way.
Along with the substantial profits they’ve made with both South Park and their award-winning stage musical – which continues to make north of $1.5m. a week in NY and Chicago, each – the duo have found a partner in Mr. Joseph Ravitch. Ravitch heads up the Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank who have invested $60m. in the company for a stake of just under 20%.
“Mr. Ravitch said, “Our bet is they will create some exciting stuff over the next five years, and this allows them the creative and financial flexibility to own their future.””
“Ten years ago, you needed that studio machinery to start cranking its marketing muscle,” Mr. Stone said. “Now we could market a movie-size project. We bring a lot of heft.”
Mr. Stone said he and Mr. Parker hoped to use the new money to allow them to “be more prolific with less struggle.”
“We want to have a little control over our life,” he explained. “We used to walk into a studio and try to become an employee. We’re done with that. We are too grown up for that.”
You have to believe that Stone and Parker at the head of their own production company can only mean good things for us as an audience in the years to come. The Book of Mormon has had a huge following in the States, and it’s destined to do the same here in the UK when it arrives next month. And it is of course no secret that South Park has one of the biggest followings of any TV show currently on the air, not to mention its brilliant cult status for its controversial plots.
With a little bit of luck, we’ll be hearing more from Stone, Parker, and Important Studios very soon on their official first projects in the weeks and months to come. I have a feeling they’re going to be every bit as successful in this as they’ve been in recent years. More as we get it.