Mayweather-Pacquiao shatters PPV records, could exceed $500m in revenue
Posted on - May 12 Tuesday, 2015
The biggest prizefight in history managed to live up to expectations – at least at the box office.
The long-awaited showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao generated more than 4.4m pay-per-view buys, nearly doubling the previous record of 2.48m for the 2007 fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya.
The figures, based on initial reports from distributors, were announced jointly by Showtime and HBO on Tuesday.
The welterweight title unification fight also yielded more than $400m in domestic pay-per-view revenue – a figure no doubt bolstered by the $99 price tag – to nearly triple the $150m generated by Mayweather’s win over Canelo Alvarez in 2013.
The final tally is expected to balloon to more than $500m once the receipts from the live gate at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, international television distribution, sponsorships, closed circuit and merchandise sales are accounted for.
The 16,800-seat venue adjacent to the MGM Grand was scaled to generate a live gate of $74m, which was greater than the previous top three gates in Nevada boxing history – for Mayweather’s fights with Alvarez ($20,003,150) and De La Hoya ($18,419,200), and Lennox Lewis’ rematch with Evander Holyfield ($16,860,300) – combined.
The official paid attendance of 16,219, according to the Nevada Athletic Commission, generated more than $71m in revenue.
The fight also set records for closed-circuit admissions and revenue. Nearly 46,000 closed-circuit tickets across 10 different MGM properties in Las Vegas sold for $150 apiece for an estimated $6.9m in revenue, another record.
Mayweather-Pacquiao was distributed in 175 countries worldwide, establishing a revenue record for international distribution.
Only six other fights in boxing history have exceeded 1.5m buys: Mayweather-De La Hoya (2.48m), Mayweather-Alvarez (2.20m), Holyfield-Tyson II (1.99m), Lewis-Tyson (1.95m), Holyfield-Tyson I (1.59m) and Tyson’s fight with Peter McNeeley (1.55m).