The Asylum is an American independent film production and distribution company based in Burbank, California.

The Asylum's business model revolves around producing as many low-budget films as quickly as possible, which earn around $150,000 to $250,000 in profit.

The Asylum spends around 4-6 months making a film, and since the company is not affiliated with any industry guilds other than SAG-AFTRA, this means their employees will sometimes work up to 22 hours a day.

The Asylum's greatest success came in 2013 with the film Sharknado, which is about a waterspout that lifts sharks out of the ocean and drops them over Los Angeles.

In response to the popularity of Sharknado, Syfy commissioned The Asylum to produce a zombie television series called Z Nation, which ran for five seasons.

[2] Rimawi and Strain had been fired by Village Roadshow Pictures, and Latt was working for an education software company called Chimera Multimedia.

[5] The Asylum struggled to break into the distribution market, as larger companies like Lionsgate Films would routinely offer filmmakers more money.

[7][8] With the rise of video on demand (VOD) services in the early 2010s, The Asylum focused on digital distribution.

[5][9] Pluto TV became the studio's largest source of revenue, with an entire channel dedicated to Asylum films.

[5] The Asylum's biggest success came in 2013 with the film Sharknado, which is about a waterspout that lifts sharks out of the ocean and drops them over Los Angeles.

[10] Today co-hosts held a dramatic reading of some of the film's lines, and the mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti joked about it on Twitter.

[10] Sharknado spawned five sequels, and when combined with merchandising and licensing sales, nearly quadrupled The Asylum's revenue from three years earlier.

"[2] In response to the popularity of Sharknado, Syfy commissioned The Asylum to produce a zombie television series called Z Nation, the studio's first foray into episodic content.

[2][11] Bales felt that the production costs for Z Nation were too high, and decided that The Asylum's next potential television series, titled Crisis Earth, would be written as three separate low-budget films that can then be cut into six individual episodes.

[5][14] It starts with The Asylum soliciting 100-word pitches from freelance screenwriters based on a story concept that the studio's distribution affiliates want.

[4][15] As journalist Amanda Hess explained, "If a Japanese DVD company wants a submarine, and Blockbuster needs a monster, the Asylum will make a sailors-meet-sea creature movie, then tweak the concept further to sell to all its potential platforms.

[16] If The Asylum is making a mockbuster, they will target larger films that are based on works or characters in the public domain, such as Sherlock Holmes or Thor.

"[3] Post-production is handled at The Asylum's headquarters in Burbank, California, which includes its own editing bays and visual effects studios.

[15] In a 2010 blog post, The Asylum urged fans to add the studio's film to their Netflix queues in order to increase the perception of public demand.

[4][19] Breihan wrote, "It takes a certain punk-rock panache for a company to unapologetically position itself as a parasite on the movie business.

[4][20][21] Greg Hudson of Sharp believes that The Asylum's cynical business model is merely a microcosm of the American film industry.

"[20] Amy Nicholson of Boxoffice said that The Asylum caters to its audience by leaning into the absurdity of their film plots.

"[17] David Roth of Slate argues that The Asylum's mockbusters succeed in satirizing the larger films they are based on.

[21] Roth used The Asylum film Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes as an example, as he felt that its usage of dinosaurs and dragons as antagonists was intended to mock the action sequences and animal jokes in the Guy Ritchie film Sherlock Holmes.