--- title: "Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone drew 2.1 million visitors and $730 million to Montana in one year, study says" url: https://badiyaa.com/yellowstone-montana-tourism-730-million-study/ published: 2026-11-03T07:46:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-03T07:46:00+00:00 section: Entertainment publisher: Badiyaa --- # Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone drew 2.1 million visitors and $730 million to Montana in one year, study says The University of Montana report, published in January 2023 and covering 2021, is trending again. Badiyaa works out what each set-jetting fan was worth to the state and how it stacks up against Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Kevin Costner’s cattle-ranch soap pulled an estimated 2.1 million visitors into Montana in a single year and left $730.1 million behind in spending, according to the University of Montana study that is doing the rounds again this week. One honesty check before the numbers: this is not a fresh study. The university published it on January 19, 2023, and it measures 2021, the year the fourth season of *Yellowstone* aired. The figures are circulating again almost two years after the series wrapped its run on December 15, 2024. ## What the university counted Two campus units did the work: the Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research. An earlier 2022 report from the same bureau had only looked at what the production itself spent in the state. Adding visitor spending changed the picture, in the words of bureau director Patrick Barkey, who called the extension of the analysis “eye-opening.” Combining tourism and film-production spending tied to the show, the researchers put the 2021 effect at: - $730.1 million in spending in Montana’s economy - $44.5 million in state tax revenue - more than 10,200 jobs, in tourism and beyond - $376 million in income for Montana households - roughly $1.1 billion in gross receipts for Montana businesses and nonbusinesses The visitor count is not casual tourism that happened to overlap with the show: the researchers counted 2.1 million people in 2021 whose decision to visit was the result of the series, plus 3,305 more people drawn to live in the state by the extra economic opportunity. “Film is an economic driver of tourism,” said Melissa Weddell, who directs the tourism institute, adding that the show “has demonstrated the power of Montana’s American West image to influence people to visit the state.” ## Our math: what a Dutton pilgrim is worth Divide the $730.1 million by 2.1 million visitors and each set-jetter is worth about $348 to Montana. The state tax take alone, $44.5 million, works out to about $21 for every fan who turned up with a Dutton Ranch cap in the suitcase, and the 10,200-plus jobs mean one Montana job for roughly every 206 visitors. Those are Badiyaa calculations from the university’s published totals, not figures the study itself reports. ## Where the fans actually go The Dutton “log mansion” is the main house of the Chief Joseph Ranch just south of Darby, a working guest ranch whose house was built between 1914 and 1917 for two Ohio businessmen who bought 2,500 acres on the Bitterroot River. Filming started there in August 2017, with early seasons also shot in Utah. In August 2020 the production moved entirely to Montana, taking over spots in Missoula and Hamilton as well as the Bitterroot Valley. The audience followed the scenery. The season three premiere drew 7.6 million viewers; the season four premiere, the one that fell inside the study year, hit 12.7 million. ## How it compares with other screen pilgrimages Set-jetting has form. The *Lord of the Rings* films lifted New Zealand’s annual tourism income from $1.7 billion in 2000 to $2.4 billion in 2004, a 40 percent jump. Alnwick Castle in England saw visitor numbers rise 120 percent after appearing in *Harry Potter*, worth an estimated £9 million to the area. The Thai beach from *The Beach* drew up to 5,000 tourists a day until it was shut in 2018 to recover. On those benchmarks, a single season of a cable drama moving $730 million through one state of 1.1 million people is a big result. Costner left the show after the first half of season five, and the Dutton story now continues through the spin-offs *Marshals*, which premiered on CBS in March 2026, and *Dutton Ranch*, which arrived on Paramount+ in May 2026. Whether those sequels keep the tour buses rolling toward Darby is the next number the Missoula economists will want to count. ## Further reading - [University of Montana: UM Study: 'Yellowstone' Series Generates 2.1M Visitors, $750M in Spending for Montana](https://www.umt.edu/news/2023/01/011923yell.php) - [Wikipedia: Yellowstone (TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_(TV_series)) - [Wikipedia: Film tourism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_tourism) *Image: Roger Peterson, Forest Service Northern Region, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*