Breaking Bad economy: How Walt made $80 million (2024)
Walter White may be fictional. But the $80 million profit he turned by selling meth in less than a year is a very realistic sum for a true-life drug kingpin.
It's not until the last season of Breaking Bad that viewers learn just how much cash their favorite meth-making anti-hero has accumulated by cooking crank. The $80 million is a staggering sum for less than a year's worth of work.
But experts say that pallet full of cash portrayed in the show is realistic, given the economics of the meth trade.
"The show has a lot of reality to it," said Ralph Weisheit, a professor of criminal justice at Illinois State and an author of the book, "Methamphetamine: Its History, Pharmacology and Treatment." "It clearly employs consultants who know a lot of about the business," he added.
The story of a quiet high school chemistry teacher who built a crystal methamphetamine empire will air its series finale on Sunday, amid strong ratings for AMC Networks(AMCX) and even stronger buzz.
Walt's fortune is built on the premise that he's selling his meth at the modest price of about $60 a gram. That's spelled out in the fifth season episode "Hazard Pay," when Walt and his partners sell a 50 pound batch of their high quality blue meth for $1,379,560, after the commission that goes to street dealers.
According to Weisheit, $60 a gram "is not at all unreasonable, especially for meth of a very high quality."
"The price of meth varies wildly from one part of the country to another, and from one time a year to another, depending on supplies," he added. "It can go from $50 a gram to $150 a gram. It makes oil prices look stable."
It's a long way from $60 for a gram of meth to the seven, 55-gallon drums of cash Walt has holding $80 million. But the volumes of meth on the show are enough to produce that mountain of cash. And the demand for the product is strong enough that Walt could move that much meth in less than a year, especially given his empire's expansion into eastern Europe this season.
Walt was able to make such a large volume of meth because he and his partners stole 1,000 gallonsof the industrial chemical methylamine from a train. After the heist, Walt's partners want to sell the chemical for $15,000 a gallon, instead of cooking it up into meth and selling it.
On the black market, that's a reasonable price for the chemical, says Weisheit.
But Walt argues that if he cooks the methylamine, he and his partners can make far more money - somewhere between $300 million and $370 million. Using the retail price of $60 a gram, that means they'd have to sell between 11,000 and 13,500 pounds of meth.
And as it turns out, the 1,000 gallons of methylamine they stole would produce anywhere from 10,000 to 13,000 pounds of very pure meth, according to Steve Preisler, a chemist who wrote the book "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture" while serving time in prison on meth charges.
Walt cooks almost 400 gallons of the methylamine before deciding to quit the business. He agrees to pay another drug dealer a 35% cut of his sales in return for handling the distribution.
That would net Walt between $78 million to $96 million in profit, or enough to fill those seven 55-gallon drums with cash.
CNNMoney (New York) First published September 27, 2013: 3:36 AM ET
Walter Hartwell White Sr., also known by his alias Heisenberg, is the fictional protagonist of the American crime drama television series Breaking Bad, portrayed by Bryan Cranston. Walter Hartwell White Sr.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Walter_White_(Breaking_Bad)
cooks almost 400 gallons of the methylamine before deciding to quit the business.He agrees to pay another drug dealer a 35% cut of his sales in return for handling the distribution. That would net Walt between $78 million to $96 million in profit, or enough to fill those seven 55-gallon drums with cash.
Walter continuously made and lost millions of dollars, with his biggest payday being when he was an employee of Gustavo Fring's, making $2 million for three months of work. However, simply being an employee wasn't enough for Heisenberg. In Breaking Bad season 5, White builds an empire and makes $80 million for himself.
Season 3. Gus is pleased with the quality of Walt's blue meth and offers him $3 million for three months of his time to cook more in a high-tech "superlab" hidden under an industrial laundry that Gus owns. Walt initially refuses, but Gus eventually convinces Walt that he should cook for his family's financial security.
What happens to Walt's money in Breaking Bad? - Quora. In the last episodes of Breaking Bad, Walter's fortune of 80 million dollars is split among 8 barrels of money. He buries it out in the desert to ensure that it can't be used as evidence against him by the police.
He is best known for his role as Jesse Pinkman in the AMC television drama series Breaking Bad (2008–2013). As of 2021, Aaron Paul's net worth is estimated to be $25 million.
Fring worth anywhere from $1-2 billion usd. For some perspective, that would mean if Fring existed in real life, he would probably have a drug empire as big as Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel and the most-wanted criminal in the WORLD.
What happens to Walt's money in Breaking Bad? In the last episodes of Breaking Bad, Walter's fortune of 80 million dollars is split among 8 barrels of money. He buries it out in the desert to ensure that it can't be used as evidence against him by the police.
The Superlab is a large-scale laboratory facility that was located underneath the Lavandería Brillante industrial laundry in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The lab was proposed by Lydia Rodarte-Quayle and financed by Gustavo Fring and Peter Schuler, with the project costing over $8 million.
By 2008, Gus had arranged a financial partnership with Peter Schuler and Madrigal Electromotive GmbH to finance the meth trade as well as their cover business, fast food restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos.
Among the 160+ salaries reported were those of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, the two main stars of "Breaking Bad." How much do Cranston and Paul earn per episode as meth cooks? Cranston takes home a cool $225,000 per episode, while Paul earns $150,000.
420rider , Gus knew Walt was best meth-cook, but he was still planning to kill him, because he couldnt' trust him, because he risked Gus entire operation with solo killing Gus' employes in open public (after that Gus got angry for Walt and started to get him whacked, remember?).
U-Store-It is a self-storage facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. One of its units was rented by Skyler White to store the ~$80 million fortune earned by her husband, Walter, from manufacturing and selling methamphetamine.
How much money was inside each one, anyway? Each barrel contained roughly $10-$11 Million. The Neo-Nazis dug them out of Walt's buried site, after he promised them to Jack Welker and his crew, in order to spare Hank's life. They took the money, and executed Hank, regardless.
In the episode, Walt had instructed Gretchen Schwartz and Elliott Schwartz, his former college partners, to give the money to Walter Jr.when he turned 18. Gretchen and Elliott agreed to do so, and it is presumed that they followed through on their promise.
At the end of El Camino, Jesse had more than $230k in cash and a 1988 Toyota Land Cruiser (the movie is set in 2010). When Skinny Pete asks Jesse if he has any cash, Jesse says no. He and Badger then give Jesse approximately $8,000 in cash.
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