Dreamworks Animation CEO offered to pay $75 million for three more episodes of Breaking Bad

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

There are Breaking Bad fans and then there are Breaking Bad FANS. Apparently, Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg was of the latter, as he loved the show so much that he wanted three more episodes, which he proposed to pay $75 million for. Katzenberg told an audience of TV execs at the Mipcom mart in Cannes that he made the offer six weeks ago, which would take place after the series finale.

“I had this crazy idea. I was nuts for the show. I had no idea where this season was going,” Katzenberg said. “The last series cost about $3.5 million an episode. So they would make more profit from these three shows than they made from five years of the entire series,” he said.

The intent was to show the extra content as six-minute segments over 30 days online, charging viewers between 50 to 99 cents per episode.

“I said (to them), ‘I’m going to create the greatest pay-per-view television event for scripted programming anybody’s ever done.’ ”

The reasoning behind sharing the story with the execs was to illustrate the commerical potential of short form online entertainment.

"I share the story with you only to tell you that I have the courage of my convictions in this. I just think that there is a whole new platform for (short form) entertainment … and the higher the quality of the stuff that fills it, the higher people will be paid for the work that they are doing there."

We toss around that term "cash grab" like it's free candy, but in this instance I think that's the best summation of Katzenberg's idea. It's excessive as shit and completely unnecessary. Would fans buy up three more episodes stretched out into 6-minute segments over 30 days? Undoubtedly. But, I like to think that there are a healthy amount of people that would recognize the blatant attempt to beat a dead horse.

What do you think? Smart business move or obvious cash grab? Would you pay for a show in 6-minute segments?