There has never been a better time to be a sellout–especially if you’re a superstar holding the rights to decades of hits. Almost half of the top 25 earners, including Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and rocker Bruce Springsteen, secured their spots in the ranks by unloading all or pieces of their studios or music catalogs.

Music libraries aren’t the only pieces of content selling for far more than a song. In the past two years, major streaming services have spent some $3.7 billion to secure the rights to TV hits such as Friends and Law & Order, helping land the creators of both shows on this year’s entertainers list. A world crazy for content nabbed South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker a spot on this year’s list and a $900 million deal with Viacom, who wanted the 25-year-old hit for its streaming service. The top earning woman in entertainment last year, No. 12 Reese Witherspoon, makes the cut after selling a piece of her production company Hello Sunshine to private equity firm Blackstone at a $900 million valuation in August.

Jay-Z, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kanye West all grabbed spots among the top five with their own 9-figure sums, most of it earned not from rapping, producing or acting, but from selling champagne, tequila and sneakers. Even the comparatively fresh-faced Taylor Swift, No. 25 with $52 million, made most of her money re-recording albums she first released a decade ago.

Altogether the 25 Highest-Paid Entertainers earned a combined $4.4 billion before taxes and fees in 2021, the vast majority of whom did it without creating anything new. (This is double the $2.2 billion that the top 25 celebrities earned in 2020.) Says Tom Freston, the former Viacom executive who greenlit South Park back when VHS tapes were still circulating: “There is so much choice these days. People gravitate to what they know.”

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/l....isettevoytko/2022/02

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