This was a wonderful, hope-inspiring thing to read. Thanks, blwessels.

phlebotinin | January 18, 22:15 CET

$500,000 with $50 for every box. That's more than $25 million. It would be wise for The WB to keep airing more seasons of ANGEL if it's that huge of a money maker in DVD sales.

Also, I've bought every season of Buffy and ANGEL out on DVD and I still watch the reruns. Some people just aminly buy the DVD's for the extras.

SpikeBad | January 18, 23:22 CET

I wonder what the WB/Fox split is for that chunk of change ...

Scott | January 19, 00:34 CET

Scott- Reading the article, I believe that all the direct revenue from the DVDs goes to Fox. The WB benefits indirectly because Fox then requires less money from the WB to cover the show's costs.

bobothebrave | January 19, 00:59 CET

Right, the article is fairly explicit about the money going to Fox, not to the WB. Also, the quoted $50/set is certainly not pure income for the studio. I see that Amazon (US) is selling seasons 1 and 2 for about $40 each, and they're presumably still making a profit, so the wholesale price has to be even lower than that. Fox also have to cover the additional DVD production costs (recording of extra material, mastering, etc.), replication/printing, distribution, and promotion.

I'm not saying that the DVD revenue is insignificant, but I would think that a more conservative estimate would be around $15 million net income from all the seasons released so far. This should be compared with the $1M/episode (I think) they get for first-run broadcast rights in the US alone.

bovik | January 19, 01:17 CET

DVD box sets always have a retail mark-up of about $15-20 or more, that's why you get everyplace claiming they are selling them for less when they first come out. So the distributor only charges the stores for a $50 box set about $30. Also not all of that is pure profit since each unit is a division of 1 corporation but are still concidered individual companies. The DVD division is seperate from the TV division, so the money breaks down even more so even if the had made $25 million projected retail of 500,000 copies at full retail price in reality they made only $15m - which goes to DVD company to cover it's cost including the licences it has to pay the TV company for letting it make the DVD in the first place. It's a complicated structure, mostly to ensure that they show very little if any profit so they can warrent what they charge for the show to the WB and others. Also depending on the cost of an episode (my guess would be about a $1m - probably more but just for the sake of this discussion I'll keepit to 1m)your looking at $22m to make Angel a year and even with the WB paying a piece of that with the licence agreement,you'd still need at least a million box sets sold to possibly make an impact on what they would charge the WB for airing the show. Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in :D

RavenU | January 19, 02:57 CET

The article doesn't say if this is DVD revenue from the USA only or world wide.

Genre shows, and Mutant Enemy shows in particular, get more display space than most other US shows here in the UK, they also seem to appear regularly in the top 10 best sellers. There might be another big chunk of money coming in from these overseas DVD sales.

technovamp | January 19, 05:21 CET

The DVD numbers the reference are from US and Canada sales of Region 1 DVD's and although the DVD market overseas is just as strong - it also comes with more cost on top starting with the different region codes of a dvd that has to be produced not to mention the extra cost to the distributors with import taxes and other such charges associated with sending stuff across the ponds. Although since the sharp drop off in syndicated sales of shows overseas DVD has been seen is a way to recoup some of that loss. So the US/Canada release is seen as more profitable than the overseas cause the overseas sales go towards recouping the syndication cost lost. However, it doesn't recoup all of it from regular box set releases. That's why you also see more special releases to the overseas market that you may never see in the US market. Like the 4 BTVS character DVD releases coming this summer and then the OMWF seperate DVD release a few years back.

RavenU | January 19, 06:28 CET

I've done my part. I have bought all the Buffy and Angel DVD's. My 11 year old daughter and I have Buffy/Angel Marathon's on the weekends. We call ourselves "Buffy Buddies". My husband and son know that when we are in this mode...to leave us alone. We will watch and rewatch. These shows have bonded us. I hope that when she is an adult and looks back on this time that she will have fond memories of our time together. Being goofy...yelling at the tv...just enjoying these characters. These shows will always be special to us. They are now. Okay...now that I've become all gushy...I'll close with DVD's are good. Syndication is good. It's all good.

Coll | January 19, 19:00 CET

Coll - your household sounds like mine! My two daughters and I will sit and watch Buffy and Angel dvds for hours while my husband watches TV in our bedroom. Although he loves Buffy and Angel too he's not as obsessed as we are. We have a ton of fun watching them and were thrilled when we could add Firefly to our collection too!

Firefly Flanatic | January 19, 21:19 CET

Actually, to put a depressing spin on this (it's my job!):

This is the kind of thing that could make the WB want to cancel the (Fox-owned-and-created) Angel for programs that are produced by the WB. There's the extra benny that, if the new WB program is a hit, it's extra $$ for "the kitty".

And given that TV execs apparently view that quality is independent of whether a show is a hit or not -- that's it's completely random -- well, you can see where this leads....

[Completely off-topic: just watched the last 5 Joan of Arcadia episodes. Damn! There's character development and continuity worthy of a Mutant Enemy production.]

bookrats | January 19, 21:56 CET

Yes but bookrat - your missing the otherside of the equation. If the WB cancels it then Fox can can the keep making it sending it straight to DVD like it is doing with Family Guy then sell the show into syndication on cable (like TNT - who is kinda hype'd on Angel's performance) or to local affilates .This way they can make their money back faster and keep a heck of a lot more of the cash for themselves.

Esspecially since FOX is more than aware of the following of the show by previous DVD box set sales. Put new episodes like 2 a month for $20 a pop sell 500,000+ - gross around $10m easily net around $5m a month spilt between TV and DVD division - then after a year put those same episodes out as a box set and you know people wil buy both. Sit back watch the money come in a no pesky licencing agreement with another network to hold you up making money off the product. No nielsen ratings to buy into there by for awhile being able to pull the wool over the creators, writers, and actors eyes - who pay no real attention to the numbers any way (heck you get the right bean counters working on the books and they will show you how Titanic actually lost money for the studio - and FOX has a lot of those bc's) so you leverage more profit by telling them your making no money on the show, thus keeping cost down during re-negosiations. Of course eventually the people working on the show will catch on or FOX will get greedy and then it will end.

Ok you know what reading over the above and my other post - I am reading way to many trade mags from Hollywood :P - not the varity and thr type but the real trade mags and I don't even work in hollywood - I just find the business dealing sometimes are as entertaining as the entertainment they represent. :P

RavenU | January 19, 23:21 CET

Bookrats - You could argue though that because Angel is getting a lot of publicity for being such a well selling DVD set that the WB gets attention for being the network that carries it. And considering they are not a top network, the more publicity they can get the better. Also, Angel is a critics darling, and the WB doesn't have a lot of those to brag about. As for "Joan of Arcadia" - I totally agree with you on that and have commented to my family about how it is similiar to Buffy in a lot of ways. Although I am enjoying it, it isn't as good as Buffy was but it has great potential.

Firefly Flanatic | January 19, 23:27 CET