Codie SanchezFounder @ Contrarian Thinking

How much Mariah Carey makes at Christmas…

21 Dec 2023 · 1 min

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A short YouTube monologue by Codie Sanchez explaining how Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas” generates recurring holiday income. The speaker breaks down estimated annual revenue streams (song royalties, live performances, specials, MSG shows, streaming, CBS TV rights) totaling over $16 million, and argues Carey built a multimedia, niche-owning strategy that yields concentrated seasonal earnings.

Questions this video answers

1994

$2.5 million annually

More than $80 million since 1994

$3 million

$1 million

Chapters

Mariah Carey, Queen of Christmas, released All I Want for Christmas back in 94. That festive masterpiece would be her golden goose, a cool 2.5 million annually. That makes her more than 80 million since it was first released. But that's just the royalty. She makes another 3 mil from live performances, another mil from specials, 3 to 5 from Madison Square Garden. She makes 2 mil from streaming rights, and another 2 mil to 3 mil from CBS TV rights, which means Mariah is making more than 16 mil this holiday season. But I think the craziest part about it is the secret sauce. She cracked the code to owning the entire Christmas niche she created once earned continuously. She had a huge hit and then created a multimedia satellite strategy around it. So like Santa, she can kick back all year and then earn during the holiday season. Now that's what we call a holly jolly financial plan.