The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men may be worth as much as $1.5 billion to HBO Max

Deadline

Industry observers tell Deadline the first streaming deals for the two Chuck Lorre CBS hit sitcoms could easily surpass the recent Friends and The Office megadeals, fetching a combined $1 billion to $1.5 billion in a package. Both The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men were Warner Bros. TV's biggest comedy hits of the last two decades, and WarnerMedia is determined to lock them up for its forthcoming HBO Max streaming service. "Part of the reason why the price tag is so big is because, unlike Friends and The Office, which have been drawing millions of old and new viewers on Netflix, Big Bang and 2.5 Men have never been exposed to streaming beyond a few 'stacked' recent episodes of Big Bang on CBS All Access over the last several seasons," reports Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "WBTV similarly held back Friends until scoring the big deal with Netflix in 2014. Additionally, Big Bang just came off its original highly rated run on CBS and continues to be a huge draw in off-network syndication on TBS. Two and a Half Man, which went through two leading men, Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher, has long been a top performer in broadcast syndication." Meanwhile, Andreeva reports that Sony TV is ready to shop streaming rights to Seinfeld, which currently belongs to Hulu through 2021. "I hear Sony TV has pitched the show to multiple streamers, including HBO Max and Netflix," reports Andreeva. "I hear there is no asking price that the distribution company is floating but they likely are targeting a deal of a size similar to that for fellow 1990s Must See TV tentpole Friends in the red-hot marketplace."