How did The Rumble in The Jungle and Thrilla' in Manilla generate hundreds of millions?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by mark ant, May 3, 2020.



  1. Saintpat

    Saintpat Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    As for the ‘hundreds of millions,’ perhaps these fights did ‘generate’ that much but that doesn’t translate straight into profit.

    Every closed circuit showing required renting theater space (or another type of venue), equipment (satellite truck, screen, etc) and other costs.

    Generally a PPV model was a 50/50 split between carrier (which owned a ‘channel’ to show it on via cable outlets and had to book or own ‘space’ on a satellite for however many hours). Closed circuit, I would imagine with all the local costs, was probably closer to 40 percent (as a guess) of revenue going to the promoter(s).
     
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  2. Skins

    Skins Boxing Addict Full Member

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    They didn't generate hundreds of millions of dollars. They made good money for the day but not that much. I think FOTC generated 20 mil so give The Rumble and Thriller a little more than that.
     
  3. TBooze

    TBooze Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    There was sadly plenty of Closed Circuit here in the UK, from the 60s to the 90s.

    It was generally a horrible experience of going to the town hall and 100+ people watching a standard TV, often with no sound, and sometimes with technical difficulties.

    Warren had a deal to show fights in pubs in 80s/90s on closed circuit too.

    What I did find out though, from Al Francis (son of Alan Rudkin) on here, is that the first PPV in the UK was not what I thought (Bruno/TysonII), but a bill from the mid 60s in North England, where customers were given a special box to unscramble a signal that was actually worked off the standard TV aerial, rather than cable or statelite.
     
  4. Flash24

    Flash24 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    It was, saw it live at a local auditorium.
     
  5. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me Full Member

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    As said above in the last couple of posts, the platform almost certainly did gross nine digits, but no way did it net them as the overhead for CCTV was pretty substantial. (plus that gross figure that gets quoted isn't all from CCTV ticket sales, primarily in the US market, although I guess the UK dabbled a bit as well - but rather a global aggregate incl. live gate, merchandising, and traditional commercial-supported terrestrial broadcast on regional channels in many countries) :thumbsup:
     
  6. IntentionalButt

    IntentionalButt Guy wants to name his çock 'macho' that's ok by me Full Member

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    The first ever was the Louis vs. Walcott rematch in '48. The last, AFAIK, was JCC vs. DLH in '96. So technically it was around just shy of half a century - but its greatest prevalence spanned about three decades, early 50's to mid 80's.
     
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