Video Postproduction Studio Revenue Benchmark

Average Video Postproduction Studio Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every teleproduction and postproduction service with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of studios gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$2,013,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $6.4 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 3,191 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $2,013,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Teleproduction and Other Postproduction Services, NAICS 512191. The Census category is Teleproduction and Other Postproduction Services, which counts editing, color, visual effects, titling and sound postproduction for film, television and video. Production companies and sound recording studios are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5121: 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 512120 Motion Picture and Video Distribution; 512131 Motion picture theaters (except drive-ins), and 2 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Motion picture and video industries, NAICS 5121, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 47.0 to 51.9 percent. This benchmark covers Motion picture and video industries, NAICS 5121, as a whole, and this category accounts for 3,191 of the 26,483 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Teleproduction and Other Postproduction Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 38.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a substantial share because editors, colorists, effects artists and sound mixers are the product, and equipment and software take much of the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes edit suites, software licenses, storage, rendering and freelance artists hired per project, which together carry much of what a studio spends.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Teleproduction and Other Postproduction Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 8.3 people, and the industry averaged 1.0 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be editors and artists for a few suites, often supplemented by freelancers.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Video Postproduction Studio: what suites, freelancers and the production calendar do to a studio's average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How full are the suites? Edit and color suites carry equipment and software costs whether booked or dark, so booked hours decide whether a studio pays. That figure is the heart of postproduction economics and outside a receipts total.
• Staff or freelancers? Many studios keep a core staff and hire editors and artists per project, scaling up for a big job and down between them. The balance explains much of the payroll share on this page and sets the size of job a studio can accept.
• Commercials, series or online content? Advertising work pays well on tight deadlines, television series bring long engagements, and online content brings volume at lower rates. A studio's client mix decides revenue per hour and how even its year is.
• How does remote work change the studio? Cloud editing and remote review sessions let studios work with clients anywhere and reduce the need for physical suites, but they change what a studio sells. A studio's position on that shift shapes its cost base.
• What does the technology cost? Software subscriptions, storage, color-accurate monitors and rendering capacity must be renewed continually, and formats change. Technology spending per suite is a defining cost that stays outside any revenue figure.
• Where does the work come from? Production companies, agencies and broadcasters send work on relationships and reputation, and a studio tied to one client carries that risk. Those relationships are the studio's real asset, and no receipts total records them.