-
-
Comment
-
Buff Bagwell is trying to transition into being a gigoloComment
-
The Great Muta will compete at TNA Lockdown on March 9thComment
-
From the Observer's breakdown of the WWE annual financial report
Why they keep fucking around with the movie division is something I will never know.There were also $11.7 million in movie division losses, mostly because of higher estimates on revenues than what was realized on films from 2010 to 2012, as well as losses from this year’s movie “Dead Man Down.” However, the company does expect to profit next year in the movie business based on yet to be garnered revenue from “The Call,” the most successful movie the company has been involved in and perhaps the movie that saved that division.
The impression is that eventual profits from the movie business of titles released over the last 18 months would be about $3 million, over the lifetime of the movies, although at this point the division is still losing money each year. But even that number is largely due to “The Call,” which was expected to turn about a $5 million profit for the company when all is said and done (the company has only received a percentage of that revenue as of the end of the year). Some of the straight-to-DVD movies may have broken even or made some, while others, like “Dead Man Down,” were significant money losers. While they are talking about how this new strategy, the third movie strategy to date, is now turning the corner, that’s only based on one successful movie that they purchased rights to and partnered on, as opposed to one they developed from scratch. But it has saved the division as Vince McMahon said they will invest another $20 million in a series of movies this year.
“We have a new business model,” said Vince McMahon. “It is our third business model, actually. This one is working, and it is making money for us. We are a content company. We understand good storylines and an opportunity for our stars to appear in other forms of entertainment other than just in the ring, and we think, again, going forward, that this is going to be a considerable contributor to the bottom line.”
Actually, I do know. Vince is annoyed that The Rock became a huge movie star away from his company, so when the next Rock comes along, he wants to make that money for himself.
The problem, is The Rock is a once per generation type talent. Throwing Ted Dibiase & The Miz into movies and hoping they stick is pretty comical. Funny how the one movie they've had that made any real money was just a real movie that they bought the rights to.
To me the mistake from day one was 'WWE FILMS'. Vince is too stubborn to accept that 'WWE' has a stigma. Should have called it something else so the public had no idea the low brow wrasslin' people were behind it. You see WWE slapped on a movie and immediately your brain classifies it as low rent nonsense.Comment
-
Merch down, PPV revenue down (because of the cost of The Rock & Lesnar), house shows flat, DVD dying...profit?That current business results are more negative than positive, but because of the potential for 2015, the stock has skyrocketed, peaking a few days back at $24.96 per share. It has declined to $23.71 at press time, the day after the launch of the network. That was bound to happen because Wall Street is big on the “buy on speculation, sell on results” axiom. The real test of the stock will come in April, or perhaps early May, when the network subscription figures will be announced and the U.S. TV contract is finalized. The market value of the company is now at $1.78 billion, the highest mid-week figure in more than a dozen years.
The story of the reaction, and the business itself going forward, is that everything is changing. Under normal circumstances, a major drop in profits even with increased revenues would cause what had been a stagnant stock to drop even lower. There would be concern over the falling divisions like merchandise and DVDs, and less profitable PPVs, as well as house shows for the most part being stagnant.
But the stock is skyrocketing because for the entire business going forward, if the right TV deal comes in, the usual major revenue streams become almost insignificant. It’s all television deals and network success. And if TV revenue doubles, they can afford a network failure as nothing more than as a minor black eye while they continue to make more money than ever. And if they do get the TV deal they are hoping for, it will be a long-term deal most likely, and the numbers are guaranteed, barring a complete collapse which simply isn’t going to happen.
The TV deal will be decided in negotiations over the next few months, and there will be an answer in the key U.S. market. The right answer, and the company is home free, at a different level than ever before. The stock is soaring because people are looking at that doubling or tripling television money, which would mean $140 to $280 million, in new revenue without any increase in costs, because it would be the same programming they are already doing. Add that to revenue, and much to the bottom line, and you can see the difference. Some people look at the NASCAR deal at $820 million a year, and WWE’s package actually gets more eyeballs during the year, and think that’s what WWE is now worth on the open market. If they get even half the deal NASCAR got in their new U.S. negotiations, the network can be a total failure and they’re home free. If they only get a modest increase, then the network success becomes paramount.
The TV rights deal is going to be so lucrative, that nothing else matters. If they get the right TV deal, even the Network can fail.
Same sort of thing is happening in other sports, particularly MLB at the individual team level. We keep hearing TV as a medium is dying a slow death, but rights fees keep exploding. The bubble will burst, but when?Comment
-
It doesn't help that everything they've done classifies as low rent nonsense.
Whether it has been something they've slapped together like Knucklehead or something they've purchased the rights to go in on like Dead Man Down...its all low rent nonsense.
The Call was their finest effort and even so...it was ok if not "turn your brain off" enjoyment.Comment
-
Regarding the Vince Russo and Wrestle-1 note, it’s not just Wrestle-1 but also New Japan that wants nothing to do with a company with Russo. Apparently there are hard feelings about the treatment of Kazuchika Okada when he was in TNA. I’d heard the remarks about when Tetsuya Naito & Yujiro Takahashi went to Mexico and worked main events for a promotion with better quality wrestlers and then worked as job guys in TNA. But with Okada, and granted, hindsight makes it look much worse, it would be like if an NBA team sat Kevin Durant on the bench for three seasons and never gave him playing time, and then he went to the Thunder and was one of the best players in the league and key to the growth of a marquee team.Comment
-
Bro Mans have been added to the TNA Tag Title match tonight in Japan with Wolves & Shuji Kondo/Kaz Hayashi.
The rest of the card, which honestly looks pretty damn solid:
Wrestle-1 added several more matches for the One Night Only PPV from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, as Bobby Roode vs. Masakatsu Funaki and Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka, Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Abyss, Rob Terry & Keiji Muto & mystery partner vs. Samoa Joe & Masayuki Kono & Rene Dupree (TNA was under the impression Joe would be working a singles match), Madison Rayne vs. Gail Kim for the Knockouts title and Satoshi Kojima vs. Yasufumi Nakanoueno. Daniels worked a lot with Kanemoto and Tanaka earlier in his career, and even took Kanemoto’s Koji clutch submission to the U.S. The Roode vs. Funaki match surprised me since Wrestle-1 a couple of weeks back was talking Funaki vs. Joe. It may have been that TNA wanted to protect Joe from doing a job to someone unknown in the U.S. on its own PPV show, whereas with Roode as a heel, it’s not as big a deal. The two top matches are Magnus vs. Kai for the TNA title and Austin Aries vs. Seiya Sanada for the X title.Comment
-
Comment
-
Meltzer just said on Observer Radio that he was told CM Punk is coming back Monday, and the person who told him this said it's 100%.
He said he will either be added to the Mania main event with Orton & Batista, or face Triple H with Bryan added to the main event.
He has not signed a new deal, so the current deal is still up in June.Comment
-
It's not a very good business plan to take two very profitable revenue streams and turn them into one, smaller revenue and go mass purchases and then say theoretically that can fail too. Silly and unsustainable. The Network can't fail, because there is no going back. They have attendance, their sponsors,2 and so-so merch sales as opposed to what they probably should be doing. They can't bank on crazy rights deal, and make a strategy based on one source overpaying for the product. Especially after you bring up the failed Films division and take into consideration the training facility and prospecting wrestlers both of whom will continue to be a drain on money by design. They're a throw-in on the Network and you're paying X amount to keep the machine going, but they'll never draw much of anything. So a few cracks in the plane and only one big engine. Craziness.Comment
Tweet
Comment