$6.3 Million goal has been reached and FOURTEEN new episodes are coming!
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#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker
704 Replies to “#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker”Commenting at Satellite News
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I agree, let’s just ignore the grumpy pants brigade and press on … tall and proud! We’ll just save their sour comments so we can triumphantly throw them back in their faces after the campaign ends successfully.
So – I was running a little numbers.
As of right now we are at $3.43 million. (Ignoring the “add-ons” which might amount to another $150,000.)
With 10 days to go, to get to $4.4 million (9 episodes) we need $97,000 per day average.
The average to date is $157K per day.
However, if we ignore the inital first 2 day burst, the average for the rest of days is $119K.
So – it feels like a $97K average is completely possible. However, with no big announcement left – there could be some slow days to come….I am assuming a final push on the last day will also see a spike, so I am still feel good about getting to 9 episodes. At a consistent per backer average of $119, that’s 815 new backers a day needed. I also think as the end gets near, it will be possible to push harder to reach that target. I give a 66% (2:3) chance of hitting $4.4 million.
Sadly, I think $5.5 million is an near-herculean (“I’m so sleepy I can hardly stay awake.”) task. Using the same calculations as above: $207,000 per day…1700 new backers per day. There’s only been 4 days of the entire campaign that have beat that average.
Unless there are (a) a lot of fans that are holding off for some reason or (b) some BIG announcement that Joel is holding onto I just don’t see it happening. I give reaching $5.5 million at 5 % (20:1).
Never tell me the odds!
Yeah, it seems like a long shot in certain ways, but to be honest, after our slow weekend, I was beginning to feel as if everyone who might be interested in a new MST3K had already contributed, and that most of those people were already tapped out. Yesterday’s explosion proved that there’s plenty of life and surprises left in this campaign, and I’m sure Joel has a few cards left to play. I’m hoping that one of them is making the KTMA episodes available; that’s sure to generate new interest among MSTies who haven’t bought in to the new show yet. We can also expect to see a surge of pledges in the last two days, if previous campaigns are any indication.
The kickstarter just cracked $3.5 million, which means we now have to do what we did in the first week of the campaign – we have to raise $2 million all over again!
Well, the bump that other Kickstarter campaigns have gotten at the end usually isn’t as big as the one at the beginning, but if history repeats itself, it should help nicely.
Donating today counts as my #GivingTuesday donation, right?
OK, I’m in.
It’s also worth remembering that virtually all Kickstarters accelerate towards the end–people up their donations, people who were on the fence decide to join in, et cetera. So we might see a surge right at the finish line.
Does Kickstarter take coupons?
I expect a surge. But I also expect a lull leading up to that. Already today they likely won’t break $100K. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are still below $4 million come monday. That would leave $1.5 million needed in the last 5 days. Again, unless Joel has something else big up his sleeve (and honestly he might) I think getting to $5.5 is going to be extremely tough.
If he does, he better play his last cards soon, time’s running out fast. Teasing the “lost” KTMA eps didn’t help (should have just added them as a new reward, fans would have scrambled to pay for those) and I’m wondering if revealing Patton Oswalt on Turkey Day instead of waiting would have helped a bit. I feel bad saying this yet again but the TD segments at Kickstarter (aside from the wonderful segment with letter writer Ashley Holtgraver) were a huge misfire and so bland.
I wonder what the impact would be if Shout stepped in and said they’d match pledges over a specified period between now and the end. They’d only be helping themselves, and didn’t the Reading Rainbow kickstarter get a huge boost when Seth MacFarlane matched donations for a day or two?
Joel had this to say today in his new update regarding asking old cast members to return:
“Finally: I’ve started reaching out to all of the original cast to make formal offers. I can’t share specifics, but Shout Factory has been working with me to figure out how we can make it work for everyone.
Before you ask, I don’t know who will decide to come back and who won’t. Some of them are busy with other projects, and a few of them have said they just don’t feel like getting involved right now. Whatever they decide, I will respect their decision… but I’m hopeful that some of them will come back and join us. And if it doesn’t happen now, maybe they’ll come back in the future. The door will always be open.”
Also from today’s update….
“But with six episodes, man, we’ll be able to show those execs what we can do! In fact, we’ve already started talking to some possible partners about giving MST3K more seasons, and they’re all watching to see how far we can go.
That’s right! Thanks to you, our Kickstarter is getting attention in Hollywood, and those “conference tables of execs” I talked about?”
Is it just me or does all this worrying over “we MUST get the attention of all those Hollywood execs!” seem a little odd, antiquated and just a wee bit pandering at this point considering how well MST3K has endured brand wise all these years? Especially after the Rhino and Shout DVD sets have all sold extremely well collectively over the last 15 or so years and also when reflecting on how the whole point of Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax respectively was getting away from having to beg execs to be “allowed” to do creative, riff based entertainment? I hope these execs are good folks who get it and not cut from the same moronic cloth of Bonnie Hammer and her ilk from the Sci-Fi days of yore. And yes, I understand even it’s online, execs have to be involved, just hoping Joel and crew get the freedom they need.
Good point… you’d think “Earth Versus Soup” would have taught them a lesson, huh? ;-)
Tom & Crow audition for Star Wars-
http://tinyurl.com/pjlxcxo
They’ve got a ways to go, but not hopeless. But the premise is more interesting since Trace auditioned for the voice of Jar Jar. If you believe that “Jar Jar was going to be the Sith puppet master”, I guess it makes sense to audition Crow/Forrester.
I suspect hinting is all he could reasonably do at this point. The last time he mentioned it he said they still had to confirm they had masters in usable shape. And there are a whole lot of steps between that and getting them released.
Of course, since Joel is just now inviting the old cast, if one of them says “Yes” over the next few days then that could be another announcement that brings some more donations in. I don’t expect Patton Oswalt numbers, but you never know; a lot of people who have already pledged would probably up their amounts.
I’ll agree on the Kickstarter segments, but I think waiting a few days to announce Oswalt was the better call. Bringing interest back up every few days is the best way to sustain it.
I’m sure announcing Oswalt on Turkey Day would have resulted in more pledges that, but I’m not sure it would have resulted in as much money over the course of the next week. We’ll never know, of course.
And while the numbers have dropped substantially from yesterday to today, today’s numbers are still thousands of dollars higher than the day before Oswalt was announced.
I think it’s all about managing that long tail, and Joel’s done a pretty good job of that. About the only thing I think he could have done better would have been to have some segments with the new cast on Turkey Day, instead of the bland Kickstarter commercial we got — and we don’t even know if they were available, so maybe that was just something that wasn’t feasible.
Did anyone else notice that the number used for the patches are incorrect? They list Joel as having 100 episodes and Mike as 97, but that’s wrong.
Joel had 107 episodes: KTMA-512 (21+13+13+24+24+12)
Mike had 90* episodes: 513-1013 (12+24+6*+22+13+13)
*(If you count 701-T, Mike had 91 episodes with Season 7 having 7 episodes)
There’s no way that Joel hosted only 100 episodes and Mike hosted 97. Even if you subtract the three lost KTMA episodes (which Joel did host) and subtract K15 – Time of the Apes where Joel was locked out of the ship that still gives him 103 episodes. If you want to include K00 – The Green Slime pilot (and K15) and still remove K01-K03 that gives him 105 (108 total, 107 actually hosted due to his absence in K15).
Mike has 90 episodes (or 91 if you want to count 701-T), period. There’s no possible way he could have 7 additional episodes, unless the Oscar/Summer Blockbuster/The Movie/Playstation Underground stuff is counted, but even then I don’t believe that’d push it up to 97..and it’s looking like they’re just counting episodes, not specials.
Joel’s already been made aware of it. He said on Twitter he’d see to it that they were fixed.
The good news is I’m sure they haven’t actually printed the patches yet. Easy fix at this stage.
But then, as RevRaven points out, what “correct” number will they go with? Will they count “The Green Slime” as an episode? Should they count the KTMA episodes at all? (I say yes). Should they count the KTMA-“Time of the Apes” episode? (I say no).
And why doesn’t Joel just turn to us, the fans, before he makes these type of announcements? ;-)
Also, wouldn’t “Soultaker” and “Mitchell” be counted in both host’s numbers? Or does it only count if they riffed in the theater? If that does count, does that mean we’ll get future patches for Pearl and Alternate-Universe versions of Dr. F and Frank, each with a “1” on them?
Personally I think an episode should count towards a host’s total if it was during the time period that they were the official host of the show. So K15 does count, but “Soultaker” and “Mitchell” don’t count for both of them.
But another question is, should the movie count? It’s not officially an episode, but plenty of people consider it to be part of season 7 (I think it probably should be counted).
In the end no matter what I’m sure somebody will be upset with the final numbers. I guess we should all try to remember to just relax (I know it’s hard sometimes!).
I think they should just count who was the official host at the time, 1 per episode. So 197 episodes, + 1 movie. Without a doubt, the movie should count.
Joel – 107 – 21+13+13+24+24+12
Mike – 91 – 12+24+6+22+13+13+1 movie
The only one I’m not sure whether they should count is the un-aired pilot, The Green Slime. I left it out.
I wouldn’t double-count 701 or leave out K15.
I agree. While Joel might not have been around for K15, he was still the “host” then, so it should count. Where as Mike in Mitchell and Joel in Soultaker shouldn’t count, because they only made appearances and weren’t hosting.
That’s really tricky. Maybe there could be some small mark or symbol on Mike’s patch to denote the movie without having to actually bump the number up?
701-T tears me because it is an official variant of an episode (unlike 901-E, which they tested that echo effect) but I can see both why it would and wouldn’t be counted towards the official total. But I could understand if they don’t count it. The Green Slime, being as it was a pilot/test pitch and never broadcast, I can see why it wouldn’t be counted either.
The Movie should be counted and I’d have no problem with counting it and putting Mike at 91, or at least somehow denoting it on his patch. Maybe a stripe? But just upping it to 91’s probably cheaper and easier.
That’s probably the easiest and best route to take.
I personally get irritated still having to count “Gamera” and “Time of the Apes” (etc) twice, because it inflates the number of Joel episodes, but if you count by number of movies riffed, it messes things up (for me at least)…
To elaborate on my last post:
We have 199 episodes (if you include the pilot and the movie) but if you remove the 8 episodes from KTMA that were repeated in Season 3, that brings us to 191 movies that have been riffed.
So if this Kickstarter campaign successfully gets 9 episodes, on top of the 191 movies above, that means the final “9th” episode will be the 200th movie riffed. And that would be a pretty cool milestone for a final episode of the new “Jonah Heston” season.
Just curious. On average, about how much of pledged money in drives becomes real money?
30%, 50%, or more?
Do you mean how much money will Joel and co actually have to work with, after expenses?
He broke it down back in update 2.
8% of the money goes to Kickstarter and the companies that process the payments. An estimated 24% will go to producing and shipping rewards, though that estimate was made before he added the $85 digital-only tier (and some backers will choose not to claim their rewards, precisely because they want their money to go to the show).
The numbers should be better for the Additional Rewards being sold through mst3k.com; while the payment processing company will still get a cut, Kickstarter won’t. Profits will, of course, depend on costs; digital episodes have a nominal cost (the bandwidth to download them), while T-shirts, posters, etc. cost money to make and ship. (I’m guessing the list prices don’t include shipping but I don’t know that for sure, as I haven’t bought anything from the Additional Rewards page.)
This isn’t a “pledge” like your local public TV station. Once the Kickstarter closes, all “pledges” are charged to the pledgers. Then Kickstarter takes a cut and the creator of the campaign gets the rest.
I’ll take “Things of little actual significance” for $400 Alex:
KTMA episodes should count. Especially if they end up releasing them.
K15 (No Joel) should count since he was the host.
The Movie should count, since it was an “experiment”.
The Pilot shouldn’t count since they didn’t really watch the whole movie or anything. Not really an “experiment”
A movie watched and riffed twice should count twice – different jokes – different “experiment”
So – I agree with Kenneth.
Joel – 107 – 21+13+13+24+24+12
Mike – 91 – 12+24+6+22+13+13+1 movie
4.4 million will make 9 episodes. What if they fall just short say 4.0-4.3 million. What then ? Will they produce 7-8 episodes? Or still try to do 9? Or stay at 6 episodes. Still keeping fingers crossed for 12 episodes.
Weren’t there 9 movies repeated in season 3? 5 Gamera, 2 FA, Apes and Mighty Jack?
Trace tweeted further on Nov. 30th in response to a fan commenting on the “disconnect” between the reboot and orginal crew:
@TraceBeaulieu Nov 30
Trace Beaulieu Retweeted Phil Nelson
@philnelson: Feeling real weird about the disconnect between mst3k alums and the new show. I wish @FrankConniff et. al. were at least involved somehow.”
@TraceBeaulieu: You are not alone.
@Dot_Crane: What? Are you not involved in the reboot?
@TraceBeaulieu: I’ve been pretty clear about that from the start.”
:-/
Ouch. You’re right. I forgot Fugitive Alien II (because that’s one of the early missing episodes). The “missing episodes” always revolves around “Invaders from the Deep” and “Revenge of the Mysterons”, in my head…
So, to go back to the “milestone” discussion: Including the movie and the pilot = 199 episodes. Then, minus the 9 repeats from Season 3 = 190 movies that have been featured (“riffed”) on MST3K.
So we need 10 episodes of a new season to reach the “200th Movie” milestone. Or if you don’t count the pilot, it’s 11 episodes needed to reach the “200th movie”. Don’t count the pilot AND the movie, then you need 12 episodes. Whatever. I just like the concept of having the final episode of Jonah’s first season be the “200th movie” milestone.
…Unless they go a different route, and count Episode 1 of the Jonah season as the “200th episode milestone” (because: 199 previous episodes, including pilot and movie).
So Joel: “200th movie” or “200th episode”. Celebrate either one. Or both.
I’ll take “Things of little significance” for $600, Alex!
I don’t think movies should be counted twice. From an in-universe perspective, there have been references to characters re-watching movies that aren’t counted.
For example, in Mike’s first episode he refers to “training” for his first real experiment, and implies he re-watched some of the older films. And at the end of “Giant Spider Invasion” Pearl makes Mike and the bots re-watch it. I don’t think these should add to Mike’s total, so I don’t think Joel’s repeats should count either. I think of them more as George Lucas-style retcons.
Pilot definitely shouldn’t count. Not a full movie and not officially released.
Joel – 98
Mike – 91
But maybe I should just relax? They’re cool patches regardless.
You guys trying to figure out the episode numbers of each host is reminding me of Wadsworth in the Clue movie trying to figure out how many shots were taken with the gun.
One plus two plus two plus one
You do realize I just made those up, right Han?
In the end, 1 episode = 1 experiment. That’s how it should count.
And I can’t frickin’ believe I’m even arguing about this. I should have my head examined.
(Truthfully I really could care less…what I thought was cool about the patches was that Joel already has a plan in place for future hosts. Clearly the next three jumpsuits will be green (yellow+ blue), orange (blue + red) and purple (red + blue). You heard it hear first.
I guess that follows the same line of thought that 73% of all statistics are made up on the spot. ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSXPNBnMkNA
I just hope we get more Señor Sock!
Well – I wasn’t giving statistics, I was giving odds…they are different things. My intention was if I was a gambling man, those are the odds I would place a bet on that we get 9 or 12 episodes. I think the odds of hitting 9 episodes are better than 50:50 but far from certain, which is why I went with 2:3.(Actually should be properly written as 3:2.) I think the odds of getting to 12 are very slim, but Joel could still pull something out to surge bidding, so 20:1.
Getting numbers for the patches won’t be easy as many have pointed out. Do you count the pilot? I say, no, as it was just a sample reel to get the network to understand what they wanted to do. Do you count KTMA episodes? Yes, I think so. Do you count the KTMA episode that Joel wasn’t there for? No. How do you count the episode where Mike Nelson was introduced? I say count it for Joel, not Mike. And what about the short Assignment: Venezuela? Do they count that? I think so, as it WAS released as an extra on a DVD. Didn’t they do another short that has never been seen?
In the end looks like no matter what #s Joel picks, someone will complain about it.
It’s a good thing we all know what to repeat to ourselves at times like this!
Just on the subject of the pilot: You don’t want to count it as an episode (in the “how many episodes?” talk), fine. But I do count it as a movie riffed by the cast of MST3K (even if the entire movie wasn’t riffed). It holds such a notoriety among MST3K fans, I think it validates counting it towards the total number of movies featured on MST3K.
“Assignment: Venezuela” doesn’t count as an episode. Same with the specials like “This is MST3K” and the “1st Annual Summer Blockbuster review”. And those are clips from TRAILERS for movies (like the trailer for “Contact” and “The Fifth Element”), so no: I don’t count “The Fifth Element” (etc) as a movie that MST3K riffed.
No WAY, man!!! The next host is purple, then green and THEN orange!!!
Can you believe this guy?! Green first, wahooo!!! [/mock nerd outrage]