It's been a while since Chris Rock's had a stand-up comedy special, so when he decided to return with a special, he decided to to it big. After HBO, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix all made bids for Rock. Streaming giant Netflix landed the deal somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million, which is a record for comedy specials.
Stand-up comedy is big among streaming platforms, its on-demand nature, relatively inexpensive production costs, and rising popularity, make it a perfect content grab for said platforms to beef up their original offerings. Still, $40 million for 2 specials is unheard of. Rock is easily a bonafide comedy legend, but this amount of money very well could reset the going rate for stand-up comedy specials.
Right now, the plan is for Rock to film two new specials that will make their worldwide debut. The first next year after Rock launches an extensive world tour. This is also coming off a year which Netflix launched many stand-up specials from heavy hitters including Patton Oswalt's latest special earning them an Emmy award. So now, leveling up and landing talent like Chris Rock only makes sense.
With Netflix winning the bid, Rock will be coming off a 20-year relationship with HBO. In addition to The Chris Rock Show, he also taped five stand-up comedy specials with the network. The most recent being 2008's Kill The Messenger which was 3 different location shots edited together into one special.