This week it was revealed that the Paramount+ streaming service had reached 60 million subscribers in the most recent quarter – adding a further 4.1 million customers and up by 17 million from this point last year.
The media giant is giving credit to its slate of originals and exclusives for boosting those numbers – a slate powered primarily by two mega-franchises – “Star Trek” and the Taylor Sheridan-verse of shows.
Now a new report in The Wall Street Journal has gone into the financials of Sheridan’s empire and revealed that Paramount spends more than $500 million a year on the production of Sheridan’s series including “1883,” “1923,” “Tulsa King,” “Mayor of Kingstown” and “Yellowstone”.
The most current season of “Yellowstone” for the Paramount Network reportedly had a budget of $12 million per episode and ended up exceeding that by several million dollars per episode. “1923” was even more expensive, with episodes reportedly running at least $22 million each and the first season alone costing nearly $200 million.
Sheridan has reportedly charged Paramount to use his own Texas ranches, which can cost as much as $50,000 a week. Other expenses include herds of cattle at $25 a head, over $210,000 for a week-long ‘cowboy camp’, and paying Harrison Ford’s flight insurance for his prop plane hobby.
More Sheridan-produced shows are also on the way with both “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” and “Special Ops: Lioness” filming, “Land Man” in pre-production, a second season of “1923” on the way, and of course, production of the back half of the final season of “Yellowstone” and a new successor series to be launched.
Paramount acknowledged to the outlet that while Sheridan’s shows are costly, the company says they are “among our most successful and profitable.”
Whilst its subscriber count is going up, losses for Paramount in the streaming business increased to $511 million in the quarter compared to $456 million a year ago, whilst the company was impacted this quarter by major costs in the programming sector as part of its plans to merge Showtime with the Paramount+ service.
Source: Indiewire
