3 ms·

who wants to back a kickstarter for the tv version of harry potter, game of thrones style. the way it was really meant to be!

batiudrami 14y ago
A Kickstarter campaign wouldn't come close to covering it. Your average cable TV drama costs upwards of $2M/episode, with Game of Thrones costing $4-$10 million/episode. Harry Potter has a big following, so it might make $10M all up - enough for a set and a pilot, maybe.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  Something like this will happen, eventually. It'll start with a very high-profile pilot, though.
  - tdoggette 14y ago
    What if a person or company committed a significant investment to such a project, contingent on a crowdfunding push hitting certain thresholds?
    - waterlesscloud 14y ago
      A pilot is sort of that, actually. TV pilots are produced as one-offs (often independently financed) and then shopped around to networks as a way to obtain funding for a full season. So it's a small step from that to saying "We'll finance this show if you can produce a pilot on your own."
    - AdrianRossouw 14y ago
      pretty sure that's what's happening here. warner bros is covering the distribution and marketing.
- VikingCoder 14y ago
  Why wouldn't it come close? 38 K people just raised $2 MM in 12 hours. I think you're thinking about this all wrong. I'd pay $10 to watch a new episode of Sherlock right now. Even if I have to wait 6 months for production. They can have $100, if I get 10 episodes. And if you can ONLY get episodes by paying for it, I think it'd scale.
  - potatolicious 14y ago
    38K people just raised $2MM in 12 hours after waiting literally years for one of their favorite series to come back in some form. There's a difference between exploiting this pent up demand in a one-off, and trying to fund a long-term regular series at that kind of cost. You might be able to get $10MM to produce said Harry Potter show, but I don't think the support base is there to repeat it week over week over week. At a lower budget level, definitely.
    - waterlesscloud 14y ago
      You'd raise it a season at a time. $150 million this year, $150 million next year. I think this could very easily be done directly from the fans. The main obstacle in the case of something like Harry Potter would be that big funding sources would be stumbling over themselves to fund it anyway. Somewhere in there, there's a crossover point to where the venture's profitability is obvious even to those not interested in the content.
      - potatolicious 14y ago
        Right, except what are the odds we can raise $150 million a year, consistently, year over year? My point is that the price that people are willing to pay for content decreases as you create more content. People might be willing to pay $50 to revive a movie from a long-dormant property, but would they pay the same $50 for the equivalent amount (2-3 episodes?) of a regular-run show? My bet is on no, at least for now - this may change in the future. This applies to more than just shows IMO - Chris Roberts (of Wing Commander fame) was able to raise a tremendous amount of money for his revival of the space sim genre - would he be able to raise even close to that amount if he went by, say, a yearly release?

batiudrami 14y ago

A Kickstarter campaign wouldn't come close to covering it. Your average cable TV drama costs upwards of $2M/episode, with Game of Thrones costing $4-$10 million/episode. Harry Potter has a big following, so it might make $10M all up - enough for a set and a pilot, maybe.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
Something like this will happen, eventually. It'll start with a very high-profile pilot, though.
- tdoggette 14y ago
  What if a person or company committed a significant investment to such a project, contingent on a crowdfunding push hitting certain thresholds?
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    A pilot is sort of that, actually. TV pilots are produced as one-offs (often independently financed) and then shopped around to networks as a way to obtain funding for a full season. So it's a small step from that to saying "We'll finance this show if you can produce a pilot on your own."
  - AdrianRossouw 14y ago
    pretty sure that's what's happening here. warner bros is covering the distribution and marketing.
VikingCoder 14y ago
Why wouldn't it come close? 38 K people just raised $2 MM in 12 hours. I think you're thinking about this all wrong. I'd pay $10 to watch a new episode of Sherlock right now. Even if I have to wait 6 months for production. They can have $100, if I get 10 episodes. And if you can ONLY get episodes by paying for it, I think it'd scale.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  38K people just raised $2MM in 12 hours after waiting literally years for one of their favorite series to come back in some form. There's a difference between exploiting this pent up demand in a one-off, and trying to fund a long-term regular series at that kind of cost. You might be able to get $10MM to produce said Harry Potter show, but I don't think the support base is there to repeat it week over week over week. At a lower budget level, definitely.
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    You'd raise it a season at a time. $150 million this year, $150 million next year. I think this could very easily be done directly from the fans. The main obstacle in the case of something like Harry Potter would be that big funding sources would be stumbling over themselves to fund it anyway. Somewhere in there, there's a crossover point to where the venture's profitability is obvious even to those not interested in the content.
    - potatolicious 14y ago
      Right, except what are the odds we can raise $150 million a year, consistently, year over year? My point is that the price that people are willing to pay for content decreases as you create more content. People might be willing to pay $50 to revive a movie from a long-dormant property, but would they pay the same $50 for the equivalent amount (2-3 episodes?) of a regular-run show? My bet is on no, at least for now - this may change in the future. This applies to more than just shows IMO - Chris Roberts (of Wing Commander fame) was able to raise a tremendous amount of money for his revival of the space sim genre - would he be able to raise even close to that amount if he went by, say, a yearly release?