EDMONTON EXPO-SE: So much money, GTA lives, Bob Ross
The money that flew through the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend was mind-boggling. The entire event is designed to suck your bank account dry.
Do the math, if you dare!
Consider the official count of 41,238 people (up from last year) each paying $80 for their pass. That’s about $3.3 million (more when you consider some of those are premium passes, less for people that went for only one day, so call it a wash). Parking was $18 a space, for let’s say 5,000 vehicles a day for three days = $270,000, and I think that goes to Northlands. There were 650 booths, from artists – charged $260 for a standard spot, $595 for a premium – to the retailers (exhibitors), which pay about $600 per booth. If you set a $400 average, the total booth income is roughly $250,000. Don’t bet the farm on my ballpark math.
Gross income so far: About $3.5 million – a conservative estimate from the Department of Nice Round Numbers. Expo won’t release financial details to confirm it.
Then come expenses, rent, staff, security, etc. – and a big one: Celebrity guests – who make out like bandits at these conventions. The bigger their nerd cachet, be they video game characters or superheroes or anime voice actors, the more they earn. Stars draw the fans, even has-beens with strong nerd connections (Star Wars or the many Star Treks, various Dr. Whos, etc.). Fees vary wildly. Hollywood Reporter published a story in 2016 that claimed stars like Chris Evans (Captain America) were commanding up to $500,000 to appear at the top Comic-Cons.
Autographs are the gravy on top. Here in Edmonton, guests were charging at least $30 per signature, $50 for a photo. People lined up for $127 a pop to get photo with the 11th Dr. Who (David Tennant). Brent Spiner (Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation) was a bargain at $67. As for their appearance fees, we can safely assume it’s in the five-figure range, maybe six, airfare and hotel included. Every deal, every star, is different. It is not known if the Expo gets a cut of the autographs.
Profit margin: Rough estimate … pretty sweet.
It’s the merch that drives the whole machine. Never mind what the public had previously spent on their elaborate cosplay outfits (has to be thousands, in some amazing cases), the fans dropped ridiculous amounts of money on largely cheap plastic crap (and a few useful items) branded with whatever favourite nerd culture icons. Plus swords, statues, pillows, God, you name it – like that Buddha Darth Vader for $260, which come to think of it would be so cool to have at the counter of a hip Chinese restaurant. One merchant who rented a triple booth for Dr. Who merch said they expected to gross at least $30,000 for the weekend. Not bad.
This sort of thing – grown-ass adults hardcore into cosplay and comic books and superheroes and spending huge amounts of their disposable income at Comic-Cons – didn’t exist before 30 years ago. In the Bible, Paul the Apostle himself said, “When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
Paul had obviously never been to the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo.
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“Do you want me to answer the fucking question or do you want to keep talking? Then shut the fuck up!”
Well played, “Ned Luke” – better known as Michael from Grand Theft Auto V – talking to some kid who was beyond excited to actually see his favourite video game character in the flesh. Ned, along with his partners in virtual crime Trevor (Steven Ogg) and Franklin (Shawn Fonteno), fully lived up to their reputations as the most badass video game characters in history, in the best and most popular, if most violent and depraved, video game ever made. These guys are video game superstars.
Turns out that Rockstar Games didn’t just use their voices, but their faces and bodies as well (via motion capture technology), indeed their very identities in a detailed 3,500-page script produced at the level of a major feature film – one you, the player, get to be in. The three actors – professional actors who auditioned for their roles – answered questions at an Expo panel on Sunday afternoon, honestly and kindly, despite their ironic off-colour banter. It was very surreal seeing video game characters come to life, since they were so much like their real selves (minus the crime), and to ponder how many times each of them has killed or been killed under our control. Let’s do the math since we’re in a math mood: 90 million copies of GTA V sold, each character dies about 100 times in the game = 9 billion deaths and counting. De Niro dies but once in a movie. “Fuck de Niro,” Ned Luke said at one point.
On the occasion of the game’s fifth anniversary (and roughly nine years since they made it), they replied “don’t even ask that fucking question” – or words to that effect – to a guy who wanted to known about GTA 6. “We’re going to be in GTA 15,” Ogg added later. “Geriatric Theft Auto.”
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A little magic white, and some happy little clouds, and now I’m a pop culture hero at Comic-Cons … wow, how did that happen?
Seriously, what happened to elevate the otherwise unassuming daytime landscape painting show host Bob Ross to nerd Godhood? Several Bob Rosses were spotted at the Edmonton Expo, including a Deadpool as Bob Ross mash-up, which given the former’s violent nature and Ross’s legendary calm demeanour you think would cancel each other out and result in the implosion of the universe. But no.
Is it because he recently died? No, Ross died in 1995. Is it because some agenda-setting nerd media saw some reruns of his legendarily relaxing PBS show and decided to make Bob Ross cool? Could be. Did someone build a Bob Ross bobblehead and it just took off from there?
The world may never know. Googling “Bob Ross” and “Comic-Con” just spits up ads for merch. Original Bob Ross paintings are said to sell for up to $10,000. Behold the circle of life!
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