The pay-per-view sales figures for the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight are in, and they are mind-boggling.
The fight generated a record 4.4 million PPV buys, HBO and Showtime announced, which produced more than $400 million in TV revenue alone.
That shatters the previous record of 2.48 million PPV buys set by Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, and it blows away the pre-fight estimates of 3.0-3.8 million buys.
And that is just the biggest piece of the fight pie. When you combine all the revenue streams, the fight generated more than $500 million, according to HBO and Showtime.
According to John Branch of The New York Times before the fight, it was estimated that there would be at least another $133 million in revenue from streams such as ticket sales ($72 million), international broadcast sales ("at least" $35 million), closed-circuit broadcasts in bars ($13 million), sponsorships ($12 million), and merchandise ($1 million).
However, if we assume that international and closed-circuit broadcasts beat the pre-fight estimates by the same rate that the final PPV buys exceeded expectations, the total revenue from these streams is probably closer to $155 million.
That pushes the total revenue for the fight to between $550 and $595 million depending on exactly how many of the PPV buys were in HD ($100) versus SD ($90).
Of that $500-plus million in revenue, more than $350 million will go to Mayweather and Pacquiao.
According to David Mayo of MLive.com, Mayweather will take home between $209 and $210 million and Pacquiao will take home between $142 and $143 million.
It is hard to imagine that anybody would turn down a rematch, even if the hype can't approach these same levels. This revenue at half the rate is still pretty decent for a day's work.
