$6.3 Million goal has been reached and FOURTEEN new episodes are coming!
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#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker
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So yesterday brought in a respectable $66K. Today’s off to a decent start; it’s over $32K at the time of this writing. The Felicia announcement, Turkey Day, and the Patton announcement all seem to have done a decent job of helping the long tail; note that the days before the Felicia Day announcement were at $33K, $28K, and $37K. Since the Day announcement we’ve only had one day below $40K (it was $34K, but that was also the day somebody pulled out a $5K pledge, so really it was $39K added with $5K removed).
It does need to hit an average of about $100K/day to make $4.4M, but that’s an average; of course if the last two days do really well then they can make up for the next few days failing to hit that mark. And, once again, we don’t know how much money is coming in from the Added Rewards.
Maybe the patches should just use algebraic letters in place of numbers. Geez.
There’s nothing so insignificant as to escape argumentation among fandom.
Just to be clear, I see it as “fun debate among fandom”, I don’t see anyone arguing.
Some comments from people here are coming across like “Geez, shut up about patches/episodes/movies!” which strikes me as rude. We’re just some fans discussing things around here, that’s all, no need for internet rage.
Yeah – I know I was really joking about it…trying to make the point that there is probably no “right” answer.
But..but…Joel already WORE Green – so Green HAS to be next. It has to or I’m never watching the show again!!!!
I HATE ZORBA’S NEW JUMPSUIT COLOR!!! (Zorba is my made up name for host #4…(s)he may or may not be greek))
“You are all evil and i hope you all have snacks.”
Just for fun, some back of the napkin calculations. The formula for the total amount raised is:
t = k[1] + k[2] + k[3] + a[0] + a[1] + a[2] + a[3]
Where
t = total amount at the end of the campaign
k[1] = amount raised so far on Kickstarter (as of the end of today)
k[2] = amount to be raised on Kickstarter over the next 5 days
k[3] = amount to be raised on Kickstarter in the final 2 days
a[0] = amount raised by Additional Rewards over Thanksgiving & Black Friday
a[1] = amount raised by Additional Rewards from November 29 through today
a[2] = amount to be raised by Additional Rewards over the next 5 days
a[3] = amount to be raised by Additional Rewards over the final 2 days
Now, I’m going to approximate k[1] at a nice, round $3.7M, though it looks like it’ll be a little higher than that. And I’m going to say a[0] is $85K, since Joel’s update the day after Black Friday said Additional Rewards had exceeded that amount.
The amount raised on Kickstarter over Thanksgiving and Black Friday was $261,060. This means that the amount raised by Additional Rewards over those two days was approximately 33% of the amount raised on Kickstarter. That’s likely to be a high as it’s the first two days the offer was available (one of which was the busiest shopping day of the year).
SO, let’s start with a deliberately pessimistic guess.
Let’s set some deliberately low numbers. Let’s say k[2], the amount earned over the next 5 days, is $125K, or only $25,000 per day. (No day has ever gone lower than $28,000. See what I mean about a pessimistic guess?)
As another pessimistic guess, let’s assume that the Additional Rewards starting on the 29th are only bringing in, oh, 5% of what Kickstarter does. Since the amount raised on Kickstarter from the 29th to today is $563,639 (and my $3.7M number assumes it’ll go up about another $4K by EOD, so let’s round it up to $568K), that means a[1] = 568,000 * 0.05 = 28,400, and a[2] = 125,000 * 0.05 = 6,250.
So that gives us
t = 3,700,000 + 125,000 + 85,000 + 28,400 + 6,250 + 1.05 * k[3]
t = 3,944,650 + 1.05 * k[3]
So to get t = 4,400,000, that gives us k[3] = 433,667
Meaning the last two days bring in an average of about $217K. Which is a little high, but doable, and seeing as I set all the other numbers deliberately low, I think that’s a pretty good sign.
Now let’s try some numbers that are a little more realistic (I think). Let’s set k[2] to 150,000, or 30,000 per day for the next 5 days, and let’s assume that the Additional Rewards pull in 10% of what Kickstarter does, meaning a[1] = 56,800 and a[2] = 15,000.
t = 3,700,000 + 150,000 + 85,000 + 56,800 + 15,000 + 1.1 * k[3]
t = 4,006,800 + 1.1 * k[3]
So for t = 4,400,000, k[3] = 357,455. Very achievable.
Going for a more optimistic projection, let’s say k[2] = 200,000 (40,000 per day), and that the Additional Rewards have been pulling in 15% of what Kickstarter does, BUT that they’ll go up to 20% on the last two days. So that gives us a[1] = 85,200 and a[2] = 30,000.
t = 3,700,000 + 200,000 + 85,000 + 85,200 + 30,000 + 1.2 * k[3]
t = 4,100,200 + 1.2 * k[3]
If t = 4,400,000, then k[3] = 249,333.
If t = 5,500,000, then k[3] = 1,166,500. Which is pretty high, but achievable.
tl;dr I’m pretty confident that we’ll hit 9 episodes. 12 episodes are within reach, especially if I’m guessing low on how much the Additional Rewards are pulling in.
Anyone can feel free to double-check my math, or do their own.
Do the live shows count?
Quick question. Does anyone know if the Blu-Ray’s would be region free? I know Shout Factory usually region lock their dvd’s and blu-rays. As a UK fan, I’d hate to get stuck with a Blu Ray box set that I can’t play.
Joel just cited the total amount raised by Additional Rewards is around 150K, or around $65K after Black Friday. So of my guesses for how AR’s are doing, the 10% estimate is low but pretty close.
On the other hand, today’s numbers on the KS are closing in on $60K, so I think my $40K/day guess is achievable.
So, let’s say
t = 3,850,000 + 200,000 + 20,000 + 1.1 * k[3]
t = 4,070,000 + 1.1 * k[3]
For t = 4,400,000, k[3] = 300,000.
For t = 5,500,000, k[3] = 1,300,000.
Again, just rough estimates. We’ll see how close any of them are next week.
Holy mackerel, pretty big jump after the latest update. I thought the day would finish in the $40-$50,000 range, and it made just shy of $90,000 instead.
Like I’ve said before, Joel’s really doing a good job of keeping the buzz going. Even if he doesn’t have any other big things to announce (and he might — his latest update says “I’ve still got news to share about a lot of those talented people I said I’ve been talking to,” which seems to imply that at least some of the old cast may be onboard after all — I’m still trying not to get my hopes up since nothing is certain, but it looks likelier now than it did a week ago), he’s keeping people engaged, and every time we’ve thought the pledges were leveling off he’s gotten them to jump again.
The new update also says they’ll be streaming two episodes every night next week, which should generate some more attention and enthusiasm too.
What, you mean like that convention where they aired and riffed “World Without End?” Were their other movies riffed by the cast at conventions?
…I’ll say “No”. Because the experiment wasn’t broadcast over television.
Which, I know, is the same reason why some toss out “The Green Slime” (it’s an unaired pilot). So yeah, I guess you could not count “The Green Slime” as well. The thing is, it kinda feels like “The Green Slime” has aired…at several MST3K conventions and on youtube.
Man, if “World Without End” had been packaged on VHS and sent out like a bonus extra for MST3K fans, I’d say count it. Is this available on Youtube or anywhere?!?
There are tricks up Joel’s sleeve, pilgrims.
One hypothesis: All that we think we know now as to who could be or not be involved with the MST3K reboot might not be the reality…
If you’re right (and for now I’ll call this the “Jon Snow Theory”, although that was a better description even a week ago, before HBO’s latest stuff gave it away) and the folks who have been nay saying any possible involvement have actually been cagey about it instead… yup, that would indeed bump things up *dramatically*.
As a matter of fact, I think something like that is the ONLY way they’ll even make 9 episodes, let alone any more. Unlike Thad, I’m nowhere near as optimistic about a final push (those kinds of final pushes have come with Kickstarters that, in general, were close to their goal but hadn’t quite reached it yet — this one reached the primary goal WAY before any of those).
I’d love to see this for a lot of reasons — I don’t think any of the original cast actually need be in this, but just to have them give it a “stamp of approval” by dropping by would be very cool (kind of like the cameos we see in such reboots in the movies).
I think @Thad’s calculations look pretty good, but it also points out that 12 episodes is a fantasy. $1.3 million over the last two days? Sure we did that the first two days, but that was with NO-ONE having bid in yet.
The only way I see getting to $5.5 million is if they manage to pull out the KTMA episodes somehow and get a bunch of MSTies snatching it up.
As of this morning they are at $3.77M + $0.15M for the extras = $3.92M. If they $75K a each day over the weekend (which would be pretty great numbers) and say another $20K from the extras, that’s still just about $4.09M with less than 5 days to go. So we’d need to push $1.41 million in the last 5 days. I just don’t see that happening.
Another example, to get to Joel’s goal of $4.4 Million by Monday, we need just over $200K per day for the next 3 days. There has only been 4 $200K days the entire campaign.
$4.4 million is in sight, $5.5 million is out of sight.
Man, don’t I wish. That performance was done at the height of the show and no one bothered to tape it? I guess I can believe it now that they’ve said the last CT shows got the same treatment.
And now I feel like I’m the only one who asks for it while everyone can’t stop talking about KTMA.
@Bad Wolf – I can’t bring myself to believe that CT didn’t have the good sense to record at least ONE of their riffings of The Astral Factor or The Doll Squad, two of the movies they did on the farewell tour….and absolutely the funniest things that I have ever witnessed live in my entire life. Even funnier, I think, than Blood of the Vampires & East Meets Watts (Dynamite Bros.) live shows that I got to see several years ago, and which were absolutely hysterical. If I give up hope that recordings exist for either of these flicks, than nothing short of a cereal bowl full of Zoloft with a splash of milk (reminiscent of the Observer Diet in show #807) would relieve my anguish.
It wasn’t officially taped, but a fan recorded half of it.
I think they will likely hit the 4.4 million mark by the end of this Kickstarter. They might make more than that if they add the missing KTMA episodes as an add-on. BUT I think at this point the only way they would hit the 5.5 million mark is if Joel announced that Mike was on board for the 1st new episode & Joel would be in it, too.
Just my 2 cents
Well, in the last update, Joel mentioned some upcoming bonus rewards from “our friends at Rifftrax”…sounds like the Rifftrax trio are in negotiations with Joel and Shout Factory.
I think a Mike appearance in the first episode could be a possibility! A “passing of the gauntlet” perhaps?
I think you’re right that pulling in $1.3M over the last two days as a “final push” (to get to 12 episodes) is pretty unlikely, but I think $300K (to get to 9) is pretty modest.
Today’s already at $36K; it will certainly exceed my $40K estimate, we just don’t know by how much yet. Yesterday exceeded my estimate by around $40K.
So let me modify my estimates a little bit. As of right now, Kickstarter’s at approximately $3.78M. We know the Additional Rewards exceed $150,000, but I’ll stick with that number.
I’m also going to assume that we’ll get another $14K today and bring the total up to a round $50K. I’ll assume $40K for the next 4 days, and keep the 10% estimate for Additional Rewards.
SO.
t = 3,780,000 + 150,000 + 14,000 + 5,000 + 160,000 + 16,000 + 1.1 * k[3]
t = 4,125,000 + 1.1 * k[3]
For t = 4,400,000, k[3] = 250,000
For t = 5,500,000, k[3] = 1,250,000
$250,000 over the final two days? I don’t think that’s a longshot at all.
Ways my numbers could be wrong:
(1) The $40K/day for the next 4 days estimate could be optimistic; it could dip down below those numbers.
I don’t think this is going to happen, because there have only been 4 days over the course of the entire campaign that have gone under $40K. One of those was the day the $5K pledge got cancelled, so it actually had around $39K come in; another was at $37K. I don’t think we’ll see less than $160K over the next 4 days (and my estimate for today’s final tally is intentionally low).
(2) I could be overestimating the amount that the Additional Rewards are bringing in. I think my 10% estimate is sound, but I acknowledge that I don’t have very much evidence to go on, and if we had day-by-day numbers for AR it would be a lot easier to estimate what they’ll be in the future.
Also, just for fun, I’m going to estimate what things will look like by Tuesday morning. I’ll stick with the $40,000 number for tomorrow and Monday, and then for Tuesday by 8 AM, let’s say…oh, $10,000.
t = 3,780,000 + 150,000 + 14,000 + 5,000 + 80,000 + 8,000 + 10,000 + 1,000
t = 4,048,000
That doesn’t get us to the Red Zone, but it gets us to the first bonus reward (the downloadable soundtrack), and just shy of the second (the second T-shirt design).
We’ll see how close I am on Tuesday, provided Joel discloses the total amount between KS and AR.
And keep in mind that Joel’s got more announcements to come (including one about a Rifftrax reward and, possibly, other information about old cast members’ participating in some way), and two episodes streaming every night next week. I don’t think my numbers are optimistic; I think they’re actually pretty conservative. But, again, time will tell.
There was a clip on the Scrapbook tape, was that from the fan recording?
Adding:
Looking at the other most-funded video/film Kickstarters, that’s true for a number of them, but, notably, it’s not true for the other two in the top three, Veronica Mars and Wish I Was Here, both of which reached their goals early but saw substantial increases in pleges over their last few days anyway.
I’m not actually sure.
Also, “Reading Rainbow” (perhaps a closer somparison) which reached its goal in one day, yet had a huge surge at the end. I’m not saying we’ll see that, but I don’t see why it should be discounted as a possibility. Going against it is all the many bumps we’ve seen over the course of the campaign (RR didn’t get those until the end.)
It’s going to be fun to see where it lands.
I definitely could see a surge at the end. People buying in to get the whole series once they see it’s reached 9 episodes or something. I just don’t think it’s strong enough for that. Look at those Verionica Mars numbers – they did $650,000 their last two days, and about $800,000 for the last five. Even if we match that, it won’t get us to $5.5.
Welp, Saturday closed out at $63K, and I’m going to revise my estimate upward. Here’s why:
(1) Remember how I pointed out there had only been four days below $40K? Well, there have only been five days below $60K.
(2) Saturday has generally been the slowest day of the week; the 6 days following Saturday are usually lower. There are only two exceptions: Sunday the 15th was just slightly lower than Saturday the 14th, and then Friday the 20th was significantly lower than both of them.
Sunday the 15th was close enough to Saturday the 14th that I’m going to say they were roughly the same, and Friday the 20th was an outlier; we can safely assume that this coming Friday will not bring in less money than today did.
So, I’m going to revise my daily estimate from $40K to $60K.
That gives us, roughly:
t = 3,800,000 + 150,000 + 6,300 + 240,000 + 24,000 + 1.1 * k[3]
t = 4,220,300 + 1.1 * k[3]
For t = 4,400,000, k[3] = 163,364
For t = 5,500,000, k[3] = 1,163,364
As for Tuesday morning, I’ll keep my lowball “$10,000 by 8 AM” estimate, because hey, 8 AM.
t = 3,800,000 + 150,000 + 6,300 + 120,000 + 12,000 + 10,000 + 1,000
t = 4,099,300
Which puts us past the second T-shirt design but shy of the double-sided poster.
Again, all this is just for fun, but I’m curious to see how I did come Tuesday.
Someone in the Kickstarter thread mentioned Mission patches for the Mads as well, which I think would be awesome! Then that got me thinking: figuring out those numbers might be as fun as figuring out Joel’s host numbers!
Here’s what I came up with, and I agree with an earlier poster who said that only the episodes (and The Movie) should count. And much as we don’t count Mike in Mitchell or Joel in Soultaker, Pearl isn’t counted until she shows up as a regular character and Frank’s Soultaker cameo doesn’t count, either.
So! Here’s some numbers that I believe are right. Follow along with me.
Dr. F and Larry are in the theme from K01-K21 = 21 episodes
Dr. F and Larry physically show up starting in K07 – K21 = 15 episodes
Dr. F and Larry show up in 101 – 113 = 13 episodes
Dr. F and Larry have 34 episodes, including K01-L06 where they were only shown in the opening theme. This is important. I think it’s only fair to give them the whole KTMA season, since they were in the opening theme at least as who were conducting the experiments. Otherwise they have 28 episodes.
Dr. F (34 episodes or 28 episodes subtracting K01-K06) and TV’s Frank have 201 – 624 (13+24+24+24+24 = 109)
Dr. F has 34 “Larry” episodes (28 subtracting K01-K06) + 109 “Frank” episodes for a total of 143 episodes (or 137 if you subtract K01-K06)
Frank has 109 episodes.
Dr. F and Pearl have 701-706 = 6 episodes (7 if you count 701-T. I really really think that 701-T should be considered a seperate episode for episode count: the different host segments and the Turkey Day bumpers really make that episode stand out to me even if the theater riffing is the same.)
Dr. F has 34 “Larry” episodes + 109 “Frank” episodes for a subtotal of 143 episodes (or 137 subtracting K01-K06), and now has 6 “Pearl” episodes for a total of 149 episodes (143 subtracting K01-K06, 150 if you count 701-T as well, 151 if you count The Movie.)
Pearl has 6 “Dr. F” episodes” (7 if you count 701-T and 48 “Sci-Fi” episodes) for a total of 54 (55 with 701-T)
Bobo has 48 episodes.
Brain Guy has 43 episodes.
The KTMA hitch: Trace was out of town and therefore not present in K05 and K06, same as Joel wasn’t present in K17. I say this shouldn’t affect Dr. F’s episode count since the Mads weren’t really in the show outside the theme until K07 anyway.
So with all of KTMA-706, Dr. F has 149 episodes. Include 701-T gives him 150 and The Movie makes 151 episodes/experiments.
Thus, the Grand Total on the number of episodes/experiments are as follows (I think):
Joel: 107 episodes (K01-512)
Mike: 91 episodes (513-1013, The Movie); 92 (513-1013 (includes 701-T, The Movie)
Dr. F: 149 episodes (K01-706, The Movie); 150 (K01-706 (includes 701-T, The Movie)
Larry: 34 episodes
Frank: 109 episodes
Pearl: 54 episodes (701-1013); 55 (including 701-T)
Bobo: 48 episodes
Brain Guy: 43 episodes
Again, I’m lobbying hard for 701-T to be counted separately, but I can see where people wouldn’t want to (particularly since removing it gives Dr. F a nice 150 experiments under his belt). Not that it matters, but what do you all think?
Gah! Messed up my own post! It should read:
Dr. F: 149 episodes (K01-706); 150 (K01-706 (includes 701-T), 151 (K01-706, 701-T & The Movie).
Math is hard! ;)
Kudos to Joel for getting this going.
However, I will admit, without any and/or all of the original cast members, I really don’t find this interesting. To me, it just won’t be the same without the original genius cast.
Joel’s going to be the show runner (and a writer, presumably) and he’s officially reached out to some of the old Brains with an open door for anyone to return if they want to. I’d love to see the old BBI reform, but we’re never going to get a continuation of the series from where it left off, it’s been too long. A “Joel/Mike-era” show will never exist again, it’s no longer the 90s. But we can still have actual MST3K once more, and that’s worth something. And like all the different eras of MST3K, it’ll be something different…but it’ll still be MST3K.
There’s been differing fan opinions on the cast changes throughout the years..but I’m hoping this isn’t some big schism between MSTies with the show being resurrected.
LOL, “it’s no longer the 90’s” sums it up pretty well.
I’m an animation fan, first and foremost (MST3K is up there as one of my OTHER favorite things), and I still can’t believe they cancelled Batman: the Animated Series. But I’ll certainly still give new Batman shows a try….(though none have come close to the original B:TAS).
“Big schism” is probably an exaggeration. I think it’ll just mean that instead of people arguing Joel vs. Mike now we’ll have to deal with people arguing Joel vs. Mike vs. Jonah. Some folks will like the new show, some won’t, most will still be friendly about it, some won’t.
Oh, I don’t know, Batman Beyond and Justice League were both worthy continuations, and while The Brave and the Bold was an entirely different thing I think it was as perfect an encapsulation of its version of Batman as the DCAU was of its version. Course, all those shows ended years ago.
That said, I don’t know why DC/WB doesn’t relaunch the DCAU in some form or other, at least with an entry or two in their direct-to-video movie series. There’s obviously a market there — the Batman: Arkham games are pretty much just Batman: TAS with violence, cursing, and much worse art. (Don’t get me wrong, I think Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are terrific games, and Arkham Knight has its moments; I just think that, in general, attempts to make a franchise more “mature” usually do the opposite.)
you know, nice things mellow with age… to us “old cusses” nowadays, the “j.V.m” argument seems kinda cold, doesn’t it? i have to admit to being a die-hard j-fan, of course/obviously (“-CUZ- … -I’M- …-OLD!-“), but one of my super-new favorites is “teenage strangler”… and sheee’, that one’s like twenty-plus years old now… always fun “new” stuff to keep discovering. (about the same time mst back then was going through its change, i was too in rl locale/work/life/etc, so i had a non-scifi era’s worth i couldn’t keep up with at the time.)
in the whole “who/network-tv could play mst”… the TCM comment is fascinating; i wouldn’t peg it to them, but they -had- explicitely mentioned mst before when playing “TORRRR-MENN-TEDDD!” that wasn’t all that long ago…
and the PBS doubly so (because it made me remember in one of the SCTV dvd extras or someplace else, dave thomas commented that maybe SCTV would have lasted longer if it were on PBS instead), although as far as i know that’d only be domestic/u.s. – do they have “PBS-UK”, like we get beed-amer? how far is the stretch of any other “standard cable/tv network” around the world anymore?
because, just for the sake of brainstorming… how big could it go… NBC? ABC? CBS? pretty wild to think about!
we aren’t going to be lacking for “access” to the new shows, i’m guessing… online (why not target the price of the average movie ticket?), dls (target twice/thrice, etc times the price of one viewing?) but regardless, “net access” is taken care of, for sure… “cable/sat only”, or “antenna-tv” (like the “me/cozi-tv” channels – remember to include the over-the-air digital-antenna market – it’s maybe bigger than you or i think!)
i think i did once here a little about el rey up here; is that really a “rob rod” channel? pretty hip! i don’t know otherwise, but IFC always seemed like a channel maybe QT had a hand or voice in, so it’s appropriate… those guys should be into “expanded-basic” cable hullabaloo.
p.s. oh! so i was going to mention, the TCM mention being funny… they were just playing a movie called “sun valley serenade” that was kind of a hoot. super-lightweight as far as anything ol’-bMovie-sci/horr goes, just a musical comedy – but had so many awkward moments throughout, just prime for some fun. i’d love to see some expanded sensibilities as far as thematics of the long-form film, just as the shorts got into school-film territory.
Sure not looking like today will make $60K after all. We’ll see how the next couple go. I do think the episodes running every night will bump things up a little, and Joel said he’s going to have an announcement every day.
“Batman Beyond” came closest.
I guess it just bugs me that while many anime series in Japan carry on for years, American animated shows all too often just pump out enough shows for syndication purposes, then stop making new episodes. And “Batman: the Animated Series” had a nice “done in one” episodic structure to it’s episodes, that I didn’t understand why they couldn’t just pump up 10 to 20 episodes a year and carry on for years.
…but yeah, the 90’s ended, didn’t they? Sorry. Off topic. :-P
Per the latest update, my predictions from yesterday DO still seem to be on track, because while I overestimated the amount from the Kickstarter, I underestimated the amount from Additional Rewards. Joel gives the latest total from AR as $225K, which means $75K in the past two days. That’s a lot more than the 10% of Kickstarter that I predicted, but it makes sense; there are a lot of people who have already contributed to the Kickstarter but might still want to pick up additional stuff.
Actually, my last prediction from yesterday was probably a little low; I predicted $4,099,300 by Tuesday and we’re already at $4.05M. I think we’ll get more than $50K by Tuesday morning, considering that the total raised this weekend between KS and AR was over $170K (or an average $85K per day). And again, we’re coming into the last week, with episodes streaming and a new announcement every day.
As long as this thread has wandered off into the “Is the reboot going to be worth it?” stage again, I want to reiterate that I was one of the most skeptical about this as well.
It’s not that I wanted a continuation of the show, with either Mike or Joel — there’s a reason for the saying “you can’t go home again” and if anyone needs proof things like “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” (or, heck, the DvD reunion show would be an even better example — about as bad as anything could possibly be, and it had all the folks who were still alive and even the original writer). I just thought that doing any kind of reboot with millenial sensibilities would be something that wouldn’t interest me in the slightest.
And then I saw the videos, starting with Day and continuing with the Bots audition for SW and I’m all in. I haven’t made my final donation yet (still at a small level) but I’m definitely going to bump it up on the last day, just for fun. They have hit ALL the right notes and while it feels a tiny bit rough around the edges it is surprising good for how very early they are in the process (my biggest worry at the moment is Patton’s involvement, as he has the potential to overshadow the rest and that’s not appropriate).
I think if this old man can give it a chance almost any true MST3K fan can as well, and might be very pleasantly surprised. And as for donating? If you’ve ever spent even $20 on an RT or CT show or DVD you really ought to spend the money here, as you’ll be getting something at least as worthwhile.
Joel: “In fact, once we hit the Red Zone, I’ll even tell you about a few great Bonus Rewards that our friends at Rifftrax are throwing in to help BringBackMST3K!”
OK, this late in the game I think it’s time to stop teasing more rewards and just announce them. If the KTMA eps were announced, instead of just being vaguely hinted at with no followup, that ticker would probably have gotten a serious surge. The campaign ends on Friday and even 4.4 million might be tough at this point, wouldn’t it make more sense to just announce more rewards now in order to create as much of a surge as possible with the mere five days we have left?
With the add-ons (@ $250,000 as of yesterday according to Joel, they are at LEAST at $4.1 million, leaving $300,000 left to hit $4.4mil. I think the likelihood of that is pretty large right now, in fact whereas I gave it 60% chance last week, I’ll put it at 90% now. However, I am not inclined to increase my $5.5 mil odds above 5 %. With $1.4 million to go in the last 5 days, only a really spectacular announcement will help at this point. (The KTMA episodes MIGHT do it…)
It sounds like the Rifftrax deal just got into place, right around the end of last week. I’m not sure announcing a new reward on Friday would have been a good idea given that weekends usually see a dip — and as it is, the announcement we did get on Friday looks like it bumped Friday and Saturday’s numbers (and Sunday’s too once we consider Additional Rewards).
That said, now that the weekend’s over I agree that Joel should announce the Rifftrax reward soon instead of waiting until we hit the Red Zone. Today would be a good time.
Again, I think Joel’s explanation for why he hasn’t made an official announcement on the KTMA episodes was the truth: they don’t have them locked in yet and he can’t promise them yet, but they’re working on it. It would be nice if the timing had worked out better, but it doesn’t look like it has. It’s still possible that there will be a last-minute announcement, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
(Then again, the last time I said I wouldn’t bet on something, it was Patton Oswalt being the henchman. So, as always, take my predictions with a grain of salt.)
I really don’t think so. We were at $4.05M last night; that means right about $60K/day for the last week of the campaign to get us to $4.4M. As I noted above, nearly every day has passed $60K (including yesterday, once you factor in Additional Rewards). Today’s already up to $40K and it’s still morning in half the country; it’s likely to hit $60K before the day’s over. And after today there are just four days; I don’t expect any of those to drop below today’s level.
I think Joel’s got the right idea in announcing something new every day this week to keep fans’ attention, but I also agree with you that if there are any rewards left to add he should add them ASAP. I think his “let’s get to $4.4M by Tuesday morning” push was a nice idea for an incentive, especially given that he’s still treating $5.5M as achievable, but I just don’t think it’s realistic. (His claim that the pledges have met all his other previous incentives is a bit of a fib; they met his $3.3M goal, but only after he pushed it back four days from its original date.)
^^^^
OK, so 4.4 is very doable then, that’s good to hear. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who thinks if Joel and Shout have the rights to the “missing” KTMA ep then they need to announce them well ahead of Friday. This really conservative phantom carrot and stick approach isn’t cutting it.
He didn’t say all of his previous incentives have been met, he said, “You know, every time I’ve given you a challenge, you’ve beaten it with time to spare”
He has done two challenges, the 24 and 72 hour challenges. The 24 hour challenge was to reach 2 million. The 72 hour challenge was to reach 2.75 by Thanksgiving. Both were met. He did add additional incentives/stretch goals, such as the 3.3 million incentive, that were not met. However, his claim was about the challenges, not the additional incentives.
Joel did not fib. Read what he actually said, not what you think he said.
It looks like $4.4M is a lock which really is incredible. It felt very much like a reach earlier in the campaign.
I believe $5.5M will come down almost entirely to what tricks Joel has left up his sleeve. If he has genuinely big announcements, we’ve got a shot. I would think the biggest announcement possible would be the involvement of Mike, Kevin, Bill, Frank and Trace or any combo. If Joel is able in any way to get Mike to appear in a KS video with him (and Jonah), that might seal the deal. I know it’s a longshot, but, it would be an ideal move to bring the whole fanbase together.
Of course, the KTMA eps would be a big bonus too. But, I have to believe the single biggest motivator would be bringing the old gang back together. Even if it’s through cameos and contributing writing. And speaking just for myself, Pearl would not move the needle at all. Mary Jo as a writer would be awesome, but, I am praying I have seen the last of the Pearl character. Sorry to end on a negative note….I just detest the character no matter how hard I try to enjoy it.
Does anybody get a Syndicated local channel called Comet? They added it this year to our local lineup and it’s great. All day (mostly) D grade sci-fi flicks and a lot of them would be prime picks for the reboot. One I saw this weekend which would be perfect was Mutant Hunt, post apocalyptic cyborg schlock from Robot Holocaust director Tim Kincaid. They also play reruns of the ’90s version of the Outer Limits (which is fun just for how wildly the quality of any given episode varies) and SG-1 (yawn). They also play some pretty good picks now and then like Vincent Price in the Last Man on Earth which I saw for the first time last week. I thought it was executed much better than both the Omega Man and the Will Smith version of I Am Legend.
Droppo:
“I would think the biggest announcement possible would be the involvement of Mike, Kevin, Bill, Frank and Trace or any combo.”
OK, currently this is NOT happening as most of the RT crew have said so themselves (only one I’m not sure has commented on the reboot is Kevin) and for whatever reason Trace has been repeatedly firm in saying many times that he’s not involved on Twitter. Expect some sort of fun RT reward like maybe some downloads, nothing more.
Sadly, I think you’re right. But, a boy can hope!
Just imagine a KS video with Frank teaching his son how to “push the button.” Or Dr. F giving Kinga a pep talk. Or….Joel Robinson (not Hodgson) and Mike Nelson (the character) showing Jonah the ropes. I believe it would get us to $5.5M. But, I do agree that it’s highly doubtful.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the info on the Mads.
Thinking back on Joel’s update info on the badges: He had 100 for Joel and 97 for Mike.
So they seem pretty set on counting it as there being 197 episodes to date. So if they do celebrate a “200th episode”, it would probably be Episode #3 of this next season. And that’s fine by me, that keeps it simple.
On the other hand, I think for “total number of movies that have been featured on MST3K”, you still have to include “This Island Earth” and “The Green Slime”. So that makes 190 movies featured…so it’d be Episode 10 of next season that would be the 200th movie.
…Though I might be willing to include “World Without End” (after finding it is available online in certain corners, and after seeing reviews of it at websites like this: http://mightyjacks.blogspot.com/2014/08/l00-world-without-end.html)
Aw gee, Captain Cab….why did you go ahead and have to say that. Wait a minute, I know who can help……Santa!!!!
Not if I send a robot with dryer tubing for arms to choke him first!
Man, it has been too long since I watched Santa Claus vs the Martians, need to fire that up soon.
One: You’re splitting hairs. The difference between a “challenge” and an “additional incentive” is nominal.
Two: Even if we accept your premise that there is a difference between a “challenge” and an “additional incentive”, Joel refers to getting $3.3M by the end of Turkey day as the “Turkey Day Challenge” five times in Update #9 (including the post title), and that’s before the eight times he uses that phrase when extending the deadline in Update #10 (again, including the title). Maybe you should take your own advice about reading what he actually said.
I haven’t seen Kevin comment on it recently, but there’s that Diffuser interview from last year that I’ve linked a couple times; he seemed pretty cold on the idea of going back and doing it again. But I guess he was mainly talking about going back to the show full-time; he didn’t say anything about a cameo.