MrBeast, the world’s most successful YouTuber, is making several changes at his company to ensure that it can become a sustainable one.
The Big Picture: Despite the millions of dollars that flow through Beast Industries, the company spends a lot more than it makes. Last year, revenue from YouTube and other media hit $224 million, but costs ballooned to $334 million. MrBeast and new CEO Jeffrey Housenbold are promising investors that the numbers will turn around this year… a shift they say could be key to becoming “the next-generation Disney.”
Behind The Bills: Like Disney itself (and much of Hollywood), Beast Industries is cutting costs to get back in the black.
It created a team dedicated to figuring out whether a video can actually be produced within budget (racing a sports car against a cheetah isn’t cheap) and is exploring AI as an alternative to hiring more staff (headcount currently stands at 350).
It’s renegotiated ad contracts (raising rates by 65%) and is pushing brands to provide products for free instead of paying retail (crazy that they don’t already do this).
It’s also trying to end MrBeast’s practice of discarding finished videos that don’t meet his creative standards.
Check Balance: With “excess” sort of being MrBeast’s calling card, cutting back risks breaking the formula. His entire appeal rests on spectacle — giving away millions of dollars or pulling off impossible, expensive stunts. If the money scale drops, does the audience as well?
His game show on Prime Video, Beast Games,is a perfect example of the tension. Even with a $100 million deal, the show still lost “tens of millions” due to runaway costs. Although the show was renewed for additional seasons, that model isn’t built to last in a belt-tightening entertainment industry.
Projection: Given the success of MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate bar brand, expect him to double down on consumer products as a way to offset media costs.
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