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Is Glu really paying Kim Kardashian 50% of the gross revenue of KK: Hollywood?

Analysing speculation

Is Glu really paying Kim Kardashian 50% of the gross revenue of KK: Hollywood?

As Glu Mobile breaks out in its financials, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood remains its top grossing game.

In 2015, the game generated $71.8 million, or 30% of Glu's gross revenue.

And in 2014, the game generated $74.3 million, or 31% of overall sales.

That's a total of $146 million, plus another $15 million or so for January, February and a bit of March 2016.

Let's call its lifetime total to-date $160 million.

Your cut

Yet, it's unclear how much Glu has to pay Kim Kardashian.

Various figures have been floated; anything from 30 to 40%, although to what gross or net figure of revenue isn't clear (at least until someone hacks her email).

But, actually, when you're a 24/7 celebrity with a Twitter account, who needs to hack.

According to Kardashian herself, she's just banked a $80 million cheque.

Bling, blingS

Of course, when you're a 24/7 celebrity with a Twitter account, you can say whatever you like.

Bigging things up (or down) is part of keeping us interested.

And in this case, the fact that Kardashian also states she's transfered $53 million into her joint account with husband Kanye West suggests some level of theatre.

For those not following the story, $53 million was the amount West recently tweeted he was in debt.

But back to that $80 million figure. Is it true?

Obviously, given the lifetime revenue for the game, it could be but only if Kardashian is getting 50% of gross revenue and this is her first payment.

File under un/likely

The first seems very high, although many contracts have a tiered system so different percentages of licensing revenue are paid at different levels of income.

Certainly it would account for Glu's inability to generate a profit

As for this $80 million being her first and only payment, that seems very unlikely, at least, if I was a celebrity, I wouldn't be keen on not getting paid for 20 months.

Still, we might gain more visibility when Glu announces its next quarterly financials.

On 31 December 2015, it had $181 million in cash.

If that level is down to around $100 million, Kanye will have been saved from penury.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.