Squid Game S2: Netflix's 1 Billion Dollar Revenue Machine
Many people wonder how streaming productions generate revenue. In the case of theatrical films, the process is straightforward. A film earns money from ticket sales, which may or may not cover the production costs. Agencies specializing in financial market analysis have identified Netflix's biggest hit, "Squid Game."
According to a report by "Bloomberg News," the second season of "Squid Game" generated over a billion dollars for the Netflix platform. It's important to note that the term "generated" is used somewhat conventionally here. As we know, subscribers to the largest streaming platform do not pay extra fees for new releases. Almost all of Netflix's revenue comes from subscription fees. "Bloomberg News" assessed the contribution of this Korean production to Netflix's revenue.
Let's remind ourselves that the second season of "Squid Game" is the third most popular series in Netflix history. The first place goes to "Squid Game. Season 1," and the second to "Wednesday. Season 1." "Squid Game. Season 2" recorded 190.1 million views, translating to 1.36 billion hours of viewing. These achievements may improve, as Netflix evaluates its productions over a 90-day viewing period. This evaluation period for the Korean production ends on March 26, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Owl & Co. agency computed the cost per thousand hours of viewing "Squid Game." According to their report, the second season of "Squid Game" was almost four times more valuable than the average Netflix production.
To reach this conclusion, analysts divided the $15.3 billion (CAD 22 billion) spent by Netflix on all content production by 188 billion hours of viewing time. This calculation showed that the average cost of watching a thousand hours of original Netflix programs is $105 (CAD 150.7).
Meanwhile, the second season of "Squid Game" had a reported budget of $70 million (CAD 100.5 million), meaning that a thousand hours of watching the series cost the platform only $28 (CAD 41). This makes the cost of a thousand hours of viewing the Korean series 3.75 times lower than the average series or movie produced by Netflix.
