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Simon Cowell, the group’s pimp behind the scenes, must be making a killing w/ these guys! God damn!

After seeing the numbers, Simon Cowell’s Syco is indeed making a nice stash. According to the group’s Wiki, “combined music, merchandising, and touring sales, according to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, as of June 2012, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire.” They’re much bigger than they were in June, so we’re gonna assume that number is up to at least $60 million by now. Pretty fucking crazy for a bunch of guys Simon bagged for only £2 million back in January, 2011.

All this cash definitely explains why he’s driving around in a Bugatti these days…

Even with all their earning potential, I take offense when certain media outlets go overboard, like for example The Huffington Post did earlier this year by proclaiming 2012 as “The Year of One Direction”. What the fuck? You’re going to base the entire year on A) How much money a boy band generates & B) How many little girls are willing to drop everything in their lives (i.e. school) & obsesses over five guys? Really? What about everyone else in society?

For those of you who have nothing better to do on this Thanksgiving morning, why not read about the group’s humble beginnings on ‘X Factor’ (via Wikipedia):

In 2010, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson auditioned as solo candidates for the seventh series of British television reality singing competition The X Factor.[3] Failing to progress to the “Boys” category at “judges’ houses”, after a suggestion by guest judge Nicole Scherzinger,[3] they were put together to form a five-piece boy band at Wembley Arena, London, England, July 2010, during the “bootcamp” stage of the competition,[4] thus qualifying for the “Groups” category. Subsequently, the group got together for two weeks to get to know each other and to practise.[5][6] Styles came up with the name One Direction as he wanted the group to go in “One Direction” in winning the competition.[5] For their qualifying song at “judges’ houses”, and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of “Torn”.[7] In the live shows within four weeks, they were Simon Cowell’s last act in the competition.[8] The group quickly gained popularity in the UK.[2] One Direction finished in third place and immediately after the final, their song “Forever Young”, which would have been released if they had won The X Factor, was leaked onto the internet.[9] Shortly afterwards it was confirmed, One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract[10][11] An One Direction-licensed book, One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), was published by HarperCollins in February 2011,[12] subsequently topping The Sunday Times Best Seller list.[13] One Direction became the brand ambassadors for Pokémon Black and White and launched limited edition Nokia C2-02 and Nokia C3-00 phones in April 2011.[14][15] Recording for their debut album began in January 2011, as they flew to Los Angeles to work with producer RedOne.[16] In February 2012, One Direction and other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour.[17] The tour saw the group performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.[18] After the tour concluded in April 2011, the group continued working on their debut album,[16] recording took place in Sweden, UK, and the United States, as One Direction worked with producers Carl Falk, Savan Kotecha, Steve Mac, and Rami Yacoub, among others.[19][20]