2018-2019 shows that have recouped?- Page 2

[kdogg36]

Posted: 7/6/19 at 9:45am

Yero my Hero said: "Of course it should, because the term "recoup" is meaningless and irrelevant to the way nonprofits finance shows."

I do appreciate the distinction between commercial and nonprofit productions, but I have to imagine that the boards of directors of Roundabout and Lincoln Center Theater have a pretty good idea about which productions have put money in their bank accounts, and approximately how much. 

Updated On: 7/6/19 at 09:45 AM

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 7/6/19 at 10:12am

Sure, but my point is that those profits were spent on other programming, they did not just go into a bank account as "profit." They know which shows have contributed more to their bottom line and how much ticket income the show has brought in, the same way we know which shows are more successful by reading the reported grosses, but there is no point when they can announce, "Show A just recouped its initial investment!" because there IS no initial investment or capitalization. The initial cost of the show is not directly quantified separate from the rest of the company's costs, neither are the operating costs. Some companies may keep track of their production budgets more closely than others, but they are still considered as part of the overall company budget.

 

Many of the operating costs on a commercial production, like a company manager, costume crew, set builder, etc. are full-time staff positions in a nonprofit theater. Their salaries are not broken down by show, they are simply paid an annual salary. So is that a production cost or is it company overhead? A profitable nonprofit production, after subtracting operating costs, does not mean the same thing as a profitable commercial production, because the budget looks completely different. It's apples and oranges.

Updated On: 7/6/19 at 10:12 AM

[dangeresque49]

Posted: 7/6/19 at 10:40pm

Birbiglia filmed the last two shows for Netflix. I was at one of them and asked one of the camera guys what the filming was for. 

[broadway.4me2]

Posted: 7/7/19 at 7:34pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "THE FERRYMAN has not recouped. It’s had quite a few rough weeks at the box office and is hugely expensive to run, so I can’t imagine it’s on track to recoup"

 

Ferryman recouped!

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/7/19 at 9:23pm

broadway.4me2 said: "Ferryman recouped!"

I take that back... indeed it has! That's great. (updated it on the list)

Updated On: 7/7/19 at 09:23 PM

[DoTheDood]

Posted: 7/7/19 at 10:17pm

dangeresque49 said: "Birbiglia filmed the last two shows for Netflix. I was at one of them and asked one of the camera guys what the filming was for."

Yesss! I loved his last two specials plus his movie and was reaalllly hoping we would get recording. Surpirsed they haven't announced it yet, but I guess he's still touring The New One, so it might not be until the fall when his next special drops. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/8/19 at 10:00am

I was very surprised to see that The Ferryman recouped, so I did the math to figure out its running cost (sharing here in case anyone is curious).

According to the link posted above, they had a capitalization of $6,700,000

An all-time gross of $28,477,932.62

A run of 39 weeks.

Which makes the average weekly gross about $730,203

Which means that, in order to recoup their $6.7MM capitalization in that time, the weekly running cost must have been no higher than $558,408 (well, maybe a little bit higher considering the $6.7MM estimate might be rounded down - but also, please feel free to correct me if this seems wrong).

I found their recoupment surprising considering their high cost of labor, and their tepid grosses throughout March, April, and May. But it looks like they were just barely making their nut during that time, and the grosses before March and after the Tonys were high enough to push them to the finish line. 

One thing I didn't consider is that $6.7MM is not actually as much as I might have guessed. In my mind, I was thinking of it as a very expensive production, but that was because of the large cost of labor. I didn't stop to consider that the weekly labor was not included in the initial capitalization. Another thing I didn't consider is that the initial capitalization was probably lower as a result of the 2 previous London productions: the Broadway investors would not have had to pay for the sets, props, etc. to be built from scratch. Plus all of the sound and lighting cues would already have been built.

 

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 2:46pm

Happy to see WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME recouped!

 

 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Broadways-WHAT-THE-CONSTITUTION-MEANS-TO-ME-Recoups-20190715

[iwuldwf]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 2:47pm

What the Constitution Means to Me recouped!  http://www.playbill.com/article/broadways-what-the-constitution-means-to-me-recoups-ahead-of-august-final-bow

Edit: oops, I'm repeating information.

Updated On: 7/15/19 at 02:47 PM

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 2:55pm

As others have said, a star less one woman show in the smallest theatre on Broadway talking about controversial political things in a highly controversial political time recouping on Broadway is amazing and the story of the season. Especially when the story the other day comes out about producers losing over $100 Million this last season. So happy for Heidi and everyone else involved. Cant wait to see this in August! 

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 4:47pm

^

It was the surest of sure things.

For which I find scant cause for rejoicing.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 5:32pm

After Eight said: "^

It was the surest of sure things.

For which I find scant cause for rejoicing.

Quite the opposite,in fact."

I am not sure what you are responding to.  Please clarify.

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 9:54pm

I believe they’re referring to my comment by saying that What The Constistuon Means To Me was a sure bet to recoup. I’ll never understand their argument for it, but they bring it up anytime someone is happy the show recouped

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/15/19 at 10:18pm

This may sound like a dumb question, but.... because Rudin usually groups up all his shows, when trying to get investors. Meaning investors have to invest in several of his shows in order to invest in one... couldn’t you make the argument that To Kill A Mockingbird hasn’t recouped? Or at least in the eyes of investors, because Rudins other shows failed to see a profit? So the investors didn’t get all their money back.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/16/19 at 1:32am

Call_me_jorge said: "This may sound like a dumb question, but.... because Rudin usually groups up all his shows, when trying to get investors. Meaning investors have to invest in several of his shows in order to invest in one... couldn’t you make the argument that To Kill A Mockingbird hasn’t recouped? Or at least in the eyes of investors, because Rudins other shows failed to see a profit? So the investors didn’t get all their money back."

Each show is an individual capitalization, and each show has a different group of investors. Mockingbird has recouped. But, if someone had 250k per show in Mockingbird, Carousel, and Gary, then yes, they've lost money on 2/3. But, that person might have also been on Dolly, Book of Mormon, and Three Tall Women, which were all profitable.

"Bundling" is an increasingly common practice (Rudin is not the first) to help get multiple shows financed. Like any type of investing, it's all about your portfolio.

Updated On: 7/16/19 at 01:32 AM