‘The Watcher’: Here’s How Much the Real Family Made By Selling Their Original Story to Netflix
Netflix’s new true crime series, The Watcher, knocked DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story out of the number one spot with its debut. However, unlike DAHMER, Ryan Murphy and Netflix had to pay for the rights to tell the story of The Watcher. Find out how much Netflix paid the real-life Brannock family (the Broaduses) to create the series.
How much did the real family make from selling the rights to ‘The Watcher?’
Neighbors of 657 Boulevard speculated that the Broaduses took home close to $10 million for the rights to the true story of The Watcher. Deadline reported that Netflix won the intense bidding war over the story. Six studios fought it out, so the family must have made a killing, right?
Sadly, the money they made from selling the story didn’t cover the losses of selling their house. The family never moved into their home at 657 Boulevard because the first threatening letter from the Watcher came only three days after closing. Instead, they tried to sell the house, but once word got out about the terrifying letters, no one wanted to purchase it. The Broaduses did not successfully sell the house until 2019.
The Cut reported that the Broaduses bought their dream home for $1.35 million in 2014 but sold it for only $959,000 in 2019. They lost approximately $400,000, so Netflix paid the family below that number.
For comparison, Netflix paid Anna Sorokin (Delvey) $320,000 for the rights to her story. So, the Broaduses probably made somewhere in that ballpark. Although the money from the story helped the family, it didn’t even touch the expenses the Broadduses incurred from paying $100,000 in property taxes for five years, bills for utilities, home insurance, renovations, and private investigators — all for a home they never lived in.
‘The Watcher’ changed the original story
Although Netflix purchased the rights to create The Watcher, they took many creative liberties with the original story. At the request of the Broadus family, the Netflix producers changed the family’s name and appearance. They gave the Brannock family two older children instead of three kids, ages 5, 8, and 10. The house is much larger than the original. Nora (Naomi Watts) and Dean Brannock (Bobby Cannavale) also move right into their New Jersey home. But, the Broaduses never lived at 657 Boulevard.
The only thing that remained nearly unchanged in The Watcher is the letters. All three letters are almost word-for-word in the new series. A councilman representing the Third Ward, where 657 Boulevard is located reported to Tap Into Westfield that he was present when the Broaduses came to the police for help in 2014.
“I watched the first episode, and it’s not really reflective of Westfield and how the events panned out,” councilman Mark LoGrippo told the outlet. “I think the show is more entertainment than reality.”
One Hollywood producer offered to purchase the watcher house
In 2018, numerous film and TV producers contacted The Watcher’s original family to purchase the rights to the article and their life story. One specific horror producer wanted to buy 657 Boulevard to use the house as the setting for their film. The Broaduses did not want to see their story turned into a movie or TV series. However, they opted to sell to Netflix, citing their experience with a Lifetime movie released without permission.
In 2016, Lifetime released The Watcher, which cited letters from “The Raven,” but it had enough artistic liberties that the Broadus family couldn’t stop it from hitting Hollywood. By choosing Netflix for the story, they had at least some control over what came to the screen.
However, Derek Broaddus does not plan to view The Watcher. He remarked that the trailer caused him enough stress.
All seven episodes of The Watcher are available for streaming on Netflix.
