You think 200mil is a couple million?
200 mil a year is what it would take to pay the key actors 10x their current salary(a piddly 1-1.5mil per episode, far less than sitcom stars like seinfeld, friends, or BBT were/are bringing in for a far less demanding 30min per episode filming schedule) bringing the total cost to 260mil a season.
I don't know how much you think HBO makes or how much of that subscription revenue correlates from GoT but 260mil for 10 hours of television isn't going to happen ever. Fucking ever, ever. Sorry you are bad at math and finance and shit but give it up.
Warner was highly illustrative this year in their release in order to show up Netflix, the Economist had a ton of great articles on it. (Most expensive show, btw, was Rome--10 million an episode)
HBO made 4.2 Billion in Sub revenue (70% domestic), and 658 Million in DVD/Licensing sales (This is BEFORE their Amazon Prime deal, I expect this to jump significantly). Their total outlays for costs were 2.3 Billion--but of that, 856 Million came from original shows (produced by them, they also made several purchases listed separately) and sports licensing/broadcast fees. Now, I didn't dig too heavily into the report; just the articles, but I believe it's estimated that a large portion of their content revenue is from GoT sales on DVD; somewhere up around 30%, or more, which is crazy considering it's competing with ALL other HBO DVD sales.
I wouldn't be SO quick to discount 260 Million for a single year, they might lay it out if they can promote it correctly; the series is almost undoubtedly making much more money than
thatfor them. The big hurdle here would be if it's MORE than a year; if they have to invest 3 years in contracts, then that is a massive risk--even excellent projections can be completely wrong in terms of Sub numbers or viewership. Committing that much beyond one season could be disasterous if year 1 of 3 turns out to lampoon the next two. But a one year
specialpromotion? It's possible. Likely? I'm not sure; HBO has been furiously diversifying its content preparing for the end of this meal ticket, so a lot of signs point to them wanting 7 (But again, if they can do a one season contract; even for that amount? You might be surprised.)...This all relies on a huge amount of factors, like how much viewership will go up, if subscription rates will continue to grow their 4% per year without their other primary Dramas (Boardwalk/True Blood, both ending this year). If it does, then, aside from Comedies and Sports, most of their sub weight, they will know, comes from GoT and that will be a no brainer for them.
Long and short, it's pretty silly to completely discount a Season 8; if 5 and 6 get more viewership,
andSub revenue grows another 4% per year (Despite the loss of major brands)? Well, then a specially promoted "Series Finale" could be in the cards. But who knows, I just love to read about Hollywood accounting in my papers
