Rovio, the Finnish entertainment company behind Angry Birds and some non-Angry Birds games like something called Retry, has always seemed to have more money than it knows what to do with. When the company decided to bring the war between birds and pigs that had previously been relegated to smartphones to the big screen, it announced a balls-out marketing campaign to go along with it. $100 million of the $185 million budget was reportedly set aside for promoting awareness of the movie, which we should note is based on a game that’s partially responsible for the ubiquity of smartphones. A mere pittance was spent on the actual animation, with the rest presumably going toward the paychecks of the top-notch vocal talent enlisted, including Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, and Peter Dinklage.
This big spending seemed to run counter to the company’s stagnant profits; for years, Angry Birds remained stubbornly off the “freemium” model in which smartphone owners download the game for free then purchase add-ons. But Rovio eventually flocked over to the free download platform, and just in time to reap the benefits—The New York Times reports that the company is now worth $1 billion.
That price tag came to light as part of Rovio’s public offering, which again, it is in the position to undertake thanks to people mindlessly chucking birds at pigs while at the doctor’s office and in place of actual dinner conversation. And in case you hadn’t yet thrown your phone across the room, a friendly reminder that there’s an Angry Birds sequel in the works.