Jared Frank (Credit: YouTube)
A 22-year-old Canadian man who posted a video of himself getting kicked in the head by a train conductor is set to cash in from the bizarre experience.
Jared Frank’s video has garnered more than 24 million hits on YouTube since being posted on April 15.
The 9-second clip shows Frank recording a selfie while standing in front of a railroad track in Peru. As a train passes behind him, a man’s leg sticks out from the train and kicks Frank in the head.
“Wow, that guy kicked me in the head,” Frank is heard saying in the video.
“I tried to take a selfie while a train passed a “safe” distance behind,” he explained in the video description.
Frank, who is known on YouTube as Jared Michael, said he has since been approached by various management agencies about his video, CBC News reported.
“I got all these different offers,” he told CBC. “And they were all legit.”
Frank confirmed that he has agreed to work with a California-based representative called Jukin Media. He was told his video could earn from $2 to $16 per 1,000 views and that he would earn a 70 percent share.
The CBC estimates that the deal could generate up to $30,000 to $250,000 for Frank, with the potential for additional revenue from licensing agreements.
“I’m a little worried, but I have a decent relationship with the licensing company, so I trust them,” Frank said. “I did a lot of research first.”
As the video rapidly went viral, viewers questioned whether or not it was real. Some speculated that the train conductor stuck out his leg to save Frank from being struck by a metal bar on the train.
Regardless of how the footage came to be, Frank will likely profit from it.
“We are confident it will generate substantial revenue for the client,” Andrew Barrett, director of marketing for Jukin Media, told CTV.
“We find clips before they go viral,” Barrett said. “Our CEO and team can look at a clip and instantly know what will happen.”
The selfie star told CBC he plans to spend his new found fortune on film school and hopes to finance a few film ideas he is working on.
