Can someone explain to me how standup specials on Netflix make money?
I’m not poo-pooing them, there are many I like, but unlike TV shows with product placements and such - I feel like the revenue streams for standup specials are less and can only nab so many subscriptions. Is it just about maintaining existing subs?
Yeah, the way they’ve described it on podcasts is that the comedian can pay to make the whole thing themselves and then just sell it like a finished product to a streaming service. For an established comedian like this, that’s almost certainly what happened.
He owns his own comedy club, so I’m sure it’s very inexpensive for him to film a special. I didn’t watch it though so I don’t know if it’s at his own club though.
I was reading how some TV shows where a single episode costs about 1million.
A standup comedy special, one that’s extremely really well made, can cost about $250k. Some of the more comedy cellar/small theater ones cost about $50-100k.
Source: I asked a producer who worked on the behind-the-scenes of stand up comedy specials for HBO back in the day.
Can someone explain to me how standup specials on Netflix make money?
I’m not poo-pooing them, there are many I like, but unlike TV shows with product placements and such - I feel like the revenue streams for standup specials are less and can only nab so many subscriptions. Is it just about maintaining existing subs?
More or less. They’re cheap to produce and big names draw a crowd
Yeah, the way they’ve described it on podcasts is that the comedian can pay to make the whole thing themselves and then just sell it like a finished product to a streaming service. For an established comedian like this, that’s almost certainly what happened.
He owns his own comedy club, so I’m sure it’s very inexpensive for him to film a special. I didn’t watch it though so I don’t know if it’s at his own club though.
I was reading how some TV shows where a single episode costs about 1million.
A standup comedy special, one that’s extremely really well made, can cost about $250k. Some of the more comedy cellar/small theater ones cost about $50-100k.
Source: I asked a producer who worked on the behind-the-scenes of stand up comedy specials for HBO back in the day.