THE ‘FIGHT OF the century’ may have been a let down to viewers all over the world, but the networks showing the fight were left quite happy.
HBO and Showtime have revealed the staggering revenue created by the fight. The box office event smashed all previous records for the amount of money made on a single fight.
In the US alone, there were over 4.4 million buys of the pay per view event, which amassed more than $400 million in domestic PPV. This dwarfs the previous record from 2013 when the Mayweather vs Canelo Alvarez fight brought in $150 million.
The live gate receipts from the fight showed a 350% increase from the previous record, totalling $71 million.
Here are some of the figures:
- The fight was shown by by more than 5000 bars throughout the U.S.
- It was shown in 175 different countries, essentially meaning it was available in 75% of the world’s territories. Also a new record.
- Over $500 million is expected to be generated from gate receipts alone when everything is tallied up.
- Between the start of the fight and the 30 minutes after about 37 million people took to Facebook to contribute more than 115 million interactions about the fight, a new record for a boxing event.
- Mayweather will reportedly recieve $210 million and Pacquiao will take home about $143 million.
Calls for a rematch have been widespread, and while it probably wouldn’t draw such a huge income if there was a second installment, the networks will surely try to make this happen again.