Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

We have a tag for "Sharknado" stories

Mark Garrison Jul 30, 2014

It’s hard to imagine where the two circles of “Marketplace coverage” and “Sharknado” intersect on a venn diagram. But overlap they do, and in suprisingly relevant ways.

That’s because the SyFy network’s made-for-tv movie is something of a phenomenon from a financial perspective. With a relatively small budget — around $1-2 million — it grew from a disappointing first airing to internet sensation to big screen flick

“Everybody asks, you know, why did this happen?” says director Anthony C. Ferrante. “You can’t ask why; it’s ‘Sharknado.’ It’s a movie about sharks and a tornado, and it just hit everybody’s sweet spot for whatever reason this summer.”

It didn’t hit a sweet spot for actor Ian Ziering initially. That is, until health insurance came into play.

Ziering was reluctant to star in the original film, but when his wife urged him to consider the union health insurance he would be eligible for by doing the movie, he reconsidered.

With a pregnant wife, Ziering put down his reservations about the cheesy script, and picked up a shark chainsaw.

So it turns out Sharknado isn’t just a story about a tornado dropping sharks from the sky.

It’s about financial success, crowdsourced marketing and health care. Go figure.

By the way, Sharknado 2 premieres Wednesday.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.