He has raised over $1.4 million already!!
Joel made a post with really good answers to 5 questions he keeps hearing.
Here is a partial quote on the money question: (sorry I can't figure out how to quote text on the phone)
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Question #1: Why do you need so much money?
Believe me, man. I hear you. If it really cost $2 million just to make three episodes, we'd be spending almost $700K per show! And you're right: by
itself, an episode of MST3K doesn't cost nearly that'll much.
But the explanation is actually pretty simple:
A. We don't get to keep all of the money we raise on Kickstarter.
Out of the first $2,000,000, we have to pay about 8% – that's $160,000 – in CAMPAIGN FEES to Kickstarter and the credit card processor.
Then we have to cover all of the REWARD AND SHIPPING COSTS to design, produce, print, sort and ship all of the rewards we're offering in exchange for
your pledge. (Those t-shirts aren't free, you know!) That costs about 27%, so that's another $540,000.
We're not charging you twice for shipping, I promise. Even though Kickstarter asks you to add more for shipping after you pledge, they count that
money toward the total we've raised, but we still have to spend that money on, you know... shipping!
So, out of the first $2,000,000 we raise, we have to spend $700,000 just on the costs of this Kickstarter campaign!
B. Then, we have a lot of startup costs just to get the show into production.
To shoot new episodes, there's a lot we'll need to do up front: creating concept art and designs, building sets, making models, creating costumes,
adding new features to upgrade the robots, and all sorts of other things. All of that work costs money, which is why that first $2,000,000 includes
$550,000 for STARTUP COSTS. The good part is that every penny of that ends up on screen, where you can see it.
C. But... the more episodes we make, the less each episode costs!
We have to spend $550,000 up front, no matter how many episodes we make. If we only make 3 episodes, these costs increase the budget for each episode
by $183K… but if we make a full 12, they only increase it by $46K each!
Anyway, once you take out the CAMPAIGN, REWARD and STARTUP COSTS, there's a lot less than $2M left.
In fact, that leaves just $750,000 for THREE FEATURE-LENGTH EPISODES OF MST3K, which – I hope – sounds a lot more reasonable than $2,000,000!
At the end of the day, our goal is to make each feature-length episode of MST3K for around $250,000.
To put that in perspective, that means we're spending less to create 90 minutes of MST3K than even the lower-end reality shows spend to make 22
minutes! (Really makes ya think, don't it?)
And remember: that $250K isn't just to hire our writers, cast and crew, or rent equipment and space. It also includes the cost of LICENSING MOVIE
RIGHTS, and that can get pretty expensive. Which brings me to the last point:
D. If we want the best cheesy movies, we have to pay for them.
Right now, none of the movies I'd like to include in the next season are in the public domain. That means we have to pay the owner of each movie a
substantial amount to include it on MST3K. That would be expensive no matter what... and that's before the owners realize what we're planning to do
with them!
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End quote.
Full answer and other questions found here:
www.kickstarter.com...
edit on 12-11-2015 by VegHead because: (no reason given)