ELI5: Why did it cost Netflix "millions of dollars" to use their previous font?

I'm fairly new to design, and am a little bit confused by why Netflix changed their font because they were paying millions to use their previous font "Gotham" (if I have that correct?).

In my experience so far, most fonts I come across cost $50-300 or so, but certainly don't reach the millions. I also wasn't familiar with type foundries. Do they make/sell exclusive fonts to companies? And it's the right to exclusivity that costs a company millions? I was under the impression Gotham was a fairly popular font to use.

Anyway, explain this to me! Would love to understand this.

Great design resource

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) Submitted March 29, 2018 at 12:01AM by ra_10 https://ift.tt/2pPejez