You Won’t Believe How Insanely Profitable the ‘Yellowstone’ Franchise Really Is

Yellowstone has become one of the most successful franchises in television over the past few years, and a recent article reveals how extraordinarily profitable the show and its various offshoots have become.

Yellowstone premiered in 2018, and as Bloomberg reports, the show did not initially draw ratings large enough to turn the fledgling Paramount Network a profit, despite the star power Kevin Costner brought to the table in his role as Dutton patriarch John Dutton.

Yellowstone was a streaming hit, drawing an average of 6.3 million viewers per episode by its second season, according to Bloomberg. But the show was tremendously expensive to film.

Cinema Blend estimates the early seasons cost about $3.5 to $4 million per episode to produce, and Paramount lost $50 million during the show's second season, leading Paramount's parent company, Viacom, to consider canceling the show, shrinking its budget or selling it to another network.

Paramount co-Chief Executive Officer Chris McCarthy inherited Yellowstone when he took over Paramount in 2019, and he felt strongly that the show could grow into a profit center for the network, which was in the process of re-branding from the former Spike TV.

McCarthy encouraged Sheridan to make the show even more over-the-top, and he moved it to a better time slot on Sundays, when television viewing peaks due to football drawing additional viewers.

McCarthy knew that Yellowstone was already the No. 1 show on cable in rural areas, which is the opposite of how shows normally catch on in cities and then spread to outlying areas.

He set about making the show a hit in urban areas, and he also hatched a plan to launch Yellowstone as a franchise, encouraging Sheridan to create additional shows in the same universe.

That approach worked, with Yellowstone growing its viewership to an average of more than 12 million in Season 4, making it the No. 1 scripted show on television.

1883 soon followed, starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and telling the story of how the early Duttons made the arduous journey West to establish the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.

1923 picked up where that left off, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren and filling in more of the Duttons' back story.

As Bloomberg reports, the Yellowstone franchise has now raked in approximately $2.9 billion, with a staggering $700 million of that in profit.

Yellowstone came to an end after Season 5 wrapped in December of 2024, but the Dutton saga is far from over. Sheridan is currently at work on at least three Yellowstone sequels, with more rumored to be in various stages of planning:

• Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly are set to star in a Yellowstone sequel that focuses on their characters, Rip and Beth. That show is tentatively slated for the Fall of 2025.
• Luke Grimes will star in his own Yellowstone spinoff as Kayce Dutton, with the working title of Y: Marshals.
• A Yellowstone sequel titled The Madison is also coming to television. Michelle Pfeiffer, former Suits star Patrick J. Adams and former Lost star Matthew Fox are set to star in that show.
• 1944 is a prequel show that's reportedly been in development, but Paramount has yet to provide any details. It's not clear if that show will move forward.
• 6666 is another show that Sheridan proposed, and he even re-arranged part of the plot of Yellowstone to set it up. But there has been no update on that show recently, and Sheridan has acknowledged it's on hold for now, since filming it would disrupt the real-life working 6666 ranch so much.

Sheridan has also produced an impressive slate of non-Yellowstone content for Paramount, including Landman, Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown, Lawmen: Bass Reeves and Tulsa King.

According to Bloomberg, the success of those shows has turned Sheridan into the most profitable showrunner in television today.