What is Joe Brumm's Net Worth?
Joe Brumm is an Australian animator and writer who has a net worth of $10 million. Joe Brumm is best known for creating, writing, and directing the Australian animated children's television series "Bluey." In 2023, Bluey was the #1 most-watched children's television show in the world and the second most-streamed show overall, behind only "Suits." Bluey is a veritable empire, with plush toys, pajamas, toothbrushes, foods, potty-training seats, and books that have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Bluey songs have been streamed hundreds of millions of times, and a live tour visited more than 200 cities in the US and Australia so far.
Before creating Blue, he worked as an animator on such British animated children's series as "Charlie and Lola," "Tinga Tinga Tales," and "Peppa Pig." Brumm has also directed some animated short films, including "Causes" and "The Meek."
Who Makes Money Off Bluey?
Long story short, Joe Brumm does not own the rights to Bluey today but he does own a portion of the show's profit sharing. Bluey is owned by an Australian production company called Ludio Studio. In a similar way Matt Groening does not "own" "The Simpsons." For most of its life, The Simpsons was owned by 21th Century Fox. Today it is owned by Disney after acquired Fox in 2019. Similarly, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld do not "own" Seinfeld even though they are the creators. They do each own 15% of Seinfeld's profits, which has earned both of them hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades.
Bluey is produced by an Australian-based production company called Ludo Studio. Ludo received an initial injection of $13,000 to fund Bluey's pilot episode from the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). After that pilot episode was shown to various studios, BBC Studios and the ABC put up $4 million to finance a full first season. In this follow-up deal, BBC Studios received international distribution and licensing rights to Bluey outside of Australia. That means today, the Australian Broadcasting Company does not profit off the massive success of Bluey. Ludo continues to "own" Bluey and shares in the profits, as does Joe Brumm, but the vast majority goes to BBC Studios. In 2023, BBC Studios generated roughly $5 billion in revenue, of which roughly $2 billion came from Bluey.
In 2019, Disney paid BBC an undisclosed, but reportedly very large, fee to air Bluey globally minus China, New Zealand, and Australia. This deal did NOT include merchandise or theme park rights. For that reason, you will not find Bluey at a Disney park, despite the fact that it is easily the company's most popular character/franchise today.
In 2020, BBC Studios struck a deal with Australian-based toy company Moose Toys to be the exclusive maker of Bluey toys. Moose Toys, which is privately owned by Manny Stuhl, previously made a fortune by creating the massively successful Shopkins toy line. The Shopkins franchise was launched in 2014. By 2016, Shopkins was so successful that Manny Stuhl had earned a net worth of $1 billion. Thanks almost entirely to Bluey, today Manny Stuhl's net worth is $2 billion, which has made him one of the richest people in Australia.
Long story short, Joe Brumm does not earn the vast majority of profits generated by his creation Bluey. He does earn a healthy slice of profits from each of the deals that have been negotiated so far and will be negotiated going forward. Furthermore, if he ever made himself available as a "free agent" creator, it's all but certain that Disney would pay him whatever he wanted to lock him up in an overall production deal. He might even be able to negotiate 100% ownership of the IP rights to a future creation, just as George Lucas did with Star Wars, which ultimately earned him tens of billions of dollars, most of which came when he sold the franchise for $4 billion in 2012 to… Disney in a cash and stock deal.
For a comparable example, consider Peppa Pig. Peppa Pig was created by Mark Baker and Neville Astley and was originally produced by their animation studio, Astley Baker Davies. The studio soon signed a UK-distribution deal with Contender Entertainment Group, one of the largest content distributors in the UK. In 2007, a company called Entertainment One acquired Contender Entertainment, primarily to gain the right to distribute Peppa Pig globally. This sale also included a minority share of the ownership rights to the Peppa franchise. In a strange twist, in 2013 eOne bought the rights to Death Row Records' catalog in a bankruptcy auction. In 2015, eOne paid $212 million to up its ownership stake in Peppa to 70%. At this point, two of eOne's biggest franchises were Death Row Records and Peppa Pig. In 2019 eOne was acquired by Hasbro for $4 billion, largely so Hasbro could acquire Peppa Pig, which is now the company's biggest brand. In this example, the creators were also the owners of the original production studio and therefore owned a large share of the IP equity in those early sales and deals. Joe Brumm is not an equity owner in Ludo Studio so he has not been able to cash-in as much as you might assume on his creation… yet.
Early Life and Education
Joe Brumm was born in the late 1970s in Winton, Queensland, Australia as the middle of three sons of Bob and Chris. His mother worked as a librarian, while his father worked for the Department of Primary Industries. When he was five years old, Brumm moved with his family to Cairns. At the age of 12, he settled with his family in Brisbane. Brumm went on to attend Marist College Ashgrove, graduating in 1995. For his higher education, he studied animation at Griffith University.
British Animated Shows
Following his graduation from Griffith University, Brumm relocated to London, England, and worked as an animator on British animated children's television series. He worked on such shows as "Charlie and Lola," "Peppa Pig," and "Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom," and went to Africa to work on "Tinga Tinga Tales," which was produced in Nairobi, Kenya.
Bluey
In 2009, Brumm returned to Brisbane and, a couple of years later, established a small animation studio called Studio Joho. Through the studio in 2016, he created a one-minute sample of a show called "Bluey," which he intended as an Australian version of the British animated children's series "Peppa Pig" with canine characters instead of porcine characters. Brumm was also inspired by his experience raising two daughters and wished to convey the importance of imaginative play during childhood. In 2017, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation co-commissioned "Bluey" as a full series for preschool children to be developed by Ludo Studio. The next year, the show made its debut on ABC Kids in Australia, and in 2019 premiered on Disney Junior in the United States.
"Bluey" centers on the titular juvenile character, an anthropomorphic Blue Heeler puppy known for her curiosity, imagination, and high energy. She lives with her father, Bandit, mother, Chilli, and younger sister, Bingo, with whom she engages in all manner of imaginative play. Bandit is voiced by Australian musician David McCormack. The identities of the voice actors behind Bluey, Bingo and several of the other child characters are secret. They are reportedly the children of production staff on the show.
There are also a myriad of recurring characters who represent different dog breeds. Themes in "Bluey" include family, collaboration, childhood play, and Australian culture. The show receives consistently high viewership in Australia and has won multiple AACTA and Logie Awards for Best Children's Program. Critics have widely praised "Bluey" for its nuanced and compassionate depiction of family life, parenting, and growing up.
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for AFI)
Other Work
In his other work, Brumm has directed such animated short films as "Causes" (2001) and "The Meek" (2015), the latter of which won an award at the Austin Film Festival. He has also been behind the animation of many College Humor sketches, including "Tinderella: A Modern Fairy Tale" and "Paperman Threesome." Elsewhere, Brumm created an original YouTube web series entitled "Dan The Man," which was turned into a successful mobile game in collaboration with the video game developer Halfbrick Studios in 2015.
Accolades and Honors
Among his honors, Brumm was named an Outstanding Alumnus of Griffith University in 2021. A couple years later, he was named a Queensland Great for his contributions to his home state of Queensland.
Personal Life
With his wife Suzy, Brumm has two daughters. His wife creates storyboards and serves as a voice actor on "Bluey."
