The Walking Dead produced for about 50c per viewer http://tinyurl.com/28er76d So why a 99c rental? Should be no more than 70c to be fair.
The advantage in producing six episodes in a row was continuity, Ms. Hurd said, keeping cast members in character and the same crew members employed. “It was also, to be hones, far more cost-effective,” she said.
The episodes were filmed almost entirely on location in and around Atlanta, where a roughly 30% tax credit cut down costs. AMC declined to comment on the show’s budget, but two people with knowledge of the production said each episode cost $2 million to $2.5 million, a price that puts it in line with other high-end dramas on cable, though still below the equivalent prices on broadcast television.
It seems like 50c per viewer is right in the middle of current production costs, and right in the middle of typical ad revenue per viewer per show.
Comments
6 responses to “The Walking Dead produced for about 50c per viewer”
My problem with this useless series is that it replaced RUBICON, which, except for its closing episode, was pretty superior to most of cable and even PBS.
Philip, what does the c in 50c actually stand for? And do you know how much ad revenue The walking Dead actually generated from it’s first season? Pre-thank you
the “c” in 50c is for cents. No idea on total revenue from Walking Dead Season 1.
Would I be wrong in assuming if 50c per viewer is the unit of typical ad revenue and the show tallied an average of 5 million viewers per episode totaling a season of 6 episodes, that would mean 30 million views including repeat episodes which I read added 2 million viewers, then an estimation could total estimate of 16 million in ad revenue?
I appreciate your expertise. I’m doing some market research, and apparently you’ve given me the best to go on lol.
I can’t fault your logic, but the numbers seem very high. I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t closer to 1/10th of those numbers. Maybe get in touch with the producers and get their response to the numbers.
Produces tend to bolster when its not for the press in the interest of positive promotion in the marketplace. But I feared the numbers seemed high. Considering Mad Men which had been a dismal failure in ad revenue averaging 2 million viewers in 2009 and only generated 2 million in total ad revenue for that year, my numbers felt high to me as well. I was trying guesstimation based on 50c per view.
I was thinking of using Mad Men ratio, but that’s almost a dollar per view! That would bloat my total double to 32 million! But then I thought if 2 and a half men can get generate 160 million in ad revenue maybe it’s not so crazy? lol I know…CBS, AMC, 2 different animals.