Netflix spent $21.4 million for the nine-episode series, which debuted four weeks ago, and the firm expects “Squid Game” to bring in more than 40 times that amount in “impact value,” or $891 million.
This is according to a Bloomberg report, claiming confidential internal corporate material was provided to the network.
According to Netflix’s internal estimations, the hyper-buzzy Korean drama “Squid Game,” which has become the streaming service’s biggest-ever TV show, is on track to give an incredible payback.
What is happening?
On Friday, Netflix fired an employee who admitted they downloaded internal data and shared it outside the company, which is a violation of the streaming giant’s policies.
Financial data for “Squid Game” and Dave Chappelle’s stand-up special “The Closer,” for which Netflix purportedly paid $24.1 million, was included in the information. The Chappelle special has become a lightning rod for critics outraged by his homophobic and transphobic remarks in “The Closer,” prompting a planned employee walkout on October 20.
The individual who released the information may have been driven by a desire to smear Netflix’s reputation by revealing that “The Closer” cost more than “Squid Game,” the company’s new top-performing worldwide hit. The employee was the only one who had access to the data used in the Bloomberg-cited code.
In “Squid Game,” set in modern-day South Korea, 456 desperately debt-stricken contestants compete in a deadly competition of mysterious origin, pitting them against each other in a series of children’s games for the chance to win 45.6 billion won (about $38.5 million) in prize money.
Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator and director of Squid Game, said the series was meant to expose the modern world’s rising wealth divide. “I wanted to write a novel that was an allegory or fable about current capitalist society, something that depicted severe competitiveness, similar to the extreme competition that exists in life,” says the author. He disclosed this to Variety in an interview last month.
Netflix response
Netflix did not respond to a request for comment right away. According to Bloomberg, a lawyer for Netflix advised the news organization that publishing the personal information included in the documents would be “inappropriate.”