If you want to make a lot of money in Hollywood, your goal should be to create a TV show that will broadcast hundreds of episodes in syndicated format all over the world for years and years to come. This is how people like Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Chuck Lowry (creator of “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory”) and Seth MacFarlane became unimaginably rich. The only downside to this goal, other than the fact that it has a very high failure rate, is that in order to get to that huge amount of gold at the end of the rainbow, you’re signing up for a high-pressure job. This required roughly 24 hours a day of work for the greater part of a decade. Unless you’re Paul Haggis. Long before he won two Oscars for the 2004 movie “Crash,” Paul Haggis received a phone call that changed his life (and his bank account) forever. The call came from a large television studio that was desperate to get them to rewrite the pilot for a new show they were developing called “Walker, Texas RangerIt was basically a freelance job that Paul worked on for less than two weeks. For his efforts in this freelance job, Paul has been credited with creating the show. A show that eventually aired over 200 episodes and was massively successful in over 100 countries. For these two little weeks of work, you won’t believe how much money Paul Haggis made…
Sometime in 1992, CBS bought the rights to produce a television pilot centered on the adventures of Sergeant Cordell Walker, a member of the Texas Rangers’ law enforcement agency. The show was originally designed by the television arm of a low-cost film studio called Cannon Films. Cannon Films is best known for its 1985 productions “Invasion USA” and 1986 “The Delta Force,” both of which starred a little-known American martial artist named Chuck Norris. After Chuck sang to star as Walker, all of the other casting decisions fell into place seamlessly. There was only one problem. A month before CBS was scheduled to film the pilot in the movie “Walker, Texas Ranger” (WTR), studio executives lulled about the script. This actually happens all the time, especially in project studios that think they have the potential to be a hit.
To address their concerns, CBS executives reached out to a rising television writer named Paul Haggis to “punch” their pilot script. Prior to working on WTR, Haggis enjoyed a fairly successful career in television dating back over 15 years. He wrote and produced the films “Who’s the Boss”, “The Facts of Life” and “Diff’rent Strokes”. His biggest hits came in 1987 with the movie “Thirty Things”, for which he worked as a writer, producer, and director, and 1989’s “City,” which he wrote and created. Paul didn’t think much of the expectations of The Walker, Texas Ranger as a TV show, and spent less than two weeks writing his version of the pilot which was then presented to CBS. As a reward for his two-week freelance work, Paul was awarded “Co-Creator” recognition on the show.
Paul Haggis – Walker Texas Ranger Fortune/Astrid Stewars/Getty Images
Today, “Walker, Texas Ranger” is famous for being a great example of the cornball television we all love to mock. Towards the end of his run on NBC’s Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien played clips from WTR every night to parody poor plot lines and cheesy acting. So it might surprise you to know that during the run, the movie “Walker, Texas Ranger” a Huge success. After its premiere on CBS on April 21, 1993, WTR was an instant success with audiences across America. Each episode during that first season averaged just under 12 million viewers. For comparison, the first season of “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS averaged 8 million viewers. The second season was equally successful and by the time the third season began in 1995, WTR was in the top 20 of the show. Between 1993 and the show’s end on May 19, 2001, “Walker, Texas Ranger” aired 202 episodes over 8 seasons. The show also spawned a TV movie, a short-lived, and three novels, Believe It or Not. And thanks to this small credit co-creating the content earned in exchange for two weeks of work, the success of WTR put a significant amount of money into Paul Haggis’ bank account.
As a co-author, Paul Haggis was entitled to a range of highly lucrative sources of income. For example, he likely received roughly $3,000 per episode “character fees” to help create the series’ regular characters. While $3,000 per episode might not seem like a lot, that fee was about $75,000 a year for eight years ($600,000 total), without Paul ever needing to lift a finger. But as you’ve guessed by now, $75,000 a year pales in comparison to Paul’s real earnings: international union rights.
The only real way to get insanely rich on TV is to own some show.”pointsA point is simply a percentage of the ownership, out of 100 possible points. If you have 1 point, when selling the show on DVD or to share, you are entitled to 1% of the total money earned. Average likely to win A first-time show creator 3 or 4 points in their show or show A creator with a bit of experience and success on their resume might get 10 points A great producer with a proven track record, like Chuck Lowry, could easily ask for 30 points to create a network show. When Lorre’s “The Big Bang Theory” sold his first 100 episodes of the show, TBS and Fox paid a combined $2 million per episode for the rights. This deal alone made $200 million USD. Chuck is said to have 30 Big Bang points. Thus he earned $60 million from this transaction alone. It has been reported that over the lifetime of Big Bang Theory, each point will generate $15-20 million. That is, Chuck Lorre’s 30 points will eventually earn between $450 and $600 million off Bang Theory great alone.
But she is getting better. Rights are sold from country to country with similar transactions and group loan deals usually only last for five years. Five years later, the shows were sold out again. Since WTR first entered the guild in 1997, the show has seen four sales rounds so far. It should also be noted that when it comes to renewing the subscription after five years, the amount paid per episode decreases. For our purposes, we’ll cautiously assume that the second round sells 75% of the first round, the third round drops to 50% and the fourth round drops to 25%. This happens because people don’t want to keep paying high premiums for episodes that everyone in the world has already watched 10 times.
For someone like Paul Haggis, a rising star with a hot resume, it’s not unreasonable to assume he was able to negotiate 10 points To work on a Walker pilot for desperate studio executives. But just to be conservative, let’s say two weeks of freelance work resulted in it 5 points (Two points more than someone who has absolutely no experience.) The movie “Walker, Texas Ranger” was put up for auction on the US syndicated market immediately after the fourth season ended in May 1997. The winner of the auction was USA Network, which agreed to pay a huge sum 750 thousand dollars For each episode to get the rights.
(Photo by Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images)
International unions work a little differently. International rights are sold before the show airs until its first episode as a way for the studio to hedge its bet and cut costs. Studios are basically dumping international rights at an upfront discount to make some guaranteed money up front quickly. International networks do not pay the same amount of money for an offer because international markets are not of value to advertisers. For our purposes, we’ll cautiously assume that international syndication sales generate 50% as much money as U.S. sales. Sure, some markets like Canada and Europe pay more, but a lot of countries like Brazil or Estonia pay less. Using these numbers, here’s how much “Walker, Texas Ranger” has likely made in its promotion period so far:
First sale: 1997 – 2002
- US market: $750,000 * 200 episodes = $150 million
- International: $375,000 * 200 episodes = $75 million
- Total first round: 225 million dollars
Second run sale: 2002 – 2007 (75% of first run)
- US market: $562K * 200 episodes = $112.5 million
- International: $281,000 * 200 episodes = $56.25 million
- Second round total: $168.75 million
Third run sale: 2007-2013 (50% of first run)
- US market: $375,000 * 200 = $75 million
- Internationally: $187.5K * 200 = $37.5M
- Third round total: $112.5 million
Fourth round sale: 2014-2019 (25% of first run)
- US market: $187.5 thousand * 200 = $37.5 million
- $93.75 * $200 = $18.75 million
- Fourth round total: $56.25
Total of the four rounds: 562.5 million dollars
Using our conservative estimate of five points, that means Paul Haggis has at least the least 28.125 million dollars Over the years of “Walker, Texas Ranger” deals. If he had 10 points, which wouldn’t be unreasonable, Paul’s taking years would be a little more 56 million dollars. Even if we’re somewhere in the middle, it’s safe to assume Paul Haggis earned between $30 and $50 million from the show he worked on for less than two weeks over 20 years ago. And you want to know the funny part? CBS never used his text! They tossed his copy straight into the trash but are contractually obligated to honor his deal. In an interview years later, Paul commented on his amazing luck:
“It was the most successful thing I’ve ever done. Two weeks of work. They didn’t use my script!“
Although the money was great, Paul wasn’t always proud of his cheesy contribution to television history. In fact, the embarrassment of being associated with Walker directly contributed to Paul’s motivation to write and direct the 2004 film “Crash,” for which he won two Academy Awards (Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture). In his words:
“I agreed to write Walker’s pilot, Texas Ranger because I thought it would go away, but it was a huge success and I remember waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning in cold sweat, dripping wet. I mean, I was soaked in water. I just filmed my gravestone and it said, “Paul Haggis: Creator of the Walker Texas Ranger.” So the motive behind making these movies is just to erase that image from my mind.
Even if he had never written and directed Crash, with $30-50 million in the bank, could life really be that bad? Either way, this example will probably go down in Hollywood history as the most money earned for the least amount of work in the shortest amount of time! Add that to your wall of Paul Trophies!
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