Economics of Broadway Touring Theatres/Presenters

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 5/26/24 at 8:22pm

I work for a major presenter in the Midwest, and I’m looking for some insights into the economics of Broadway touring theatres and presenters. Specifically, I’m curious about what the productions have to pay to play at each respective theatre and how this differs from a show sitting down on Broadway.

From my understanding, the touring production typically pays the presenter a set amount of money to use the space and cover the theatre’s staff. However, our presenter seems to have a hard time keeping the theatres fully staffed. Here’s a bit more detail:

•    For three of our four houses, a fully staffed theatre requires 34 ushers, 6 supervisors, 1 assistant house manager, and 1 house manager.

•    For our fourth and smaller house, a fully staffed theatre needs 6 ushers, 1 supervisor, and 1 house manager.

My question is, if the presenter guarantees 34 ushers to each production and the production pays for 34 ushers, but the presenter doesn’t hire enough people to reach this number, where is the excess money going? Is there an industry-standard practice for handling such discrepancies? Any insights or experiences you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/26/24 at 9:03pm

You have it reversed:

The touring presenter (the theatre) pays a guarantee to the touring production entity that guarantees the production will get paid $X regardless of how much ticket revenue is sold.

Then, beyond a certain financial threshold, there is a box office split between the presenting house and the touring show entity.

The theatre is responsible for staffing itself (ushers, bar staff, etc) and for providing a certain level of marketing.

On Broadway the economics are entirely different. The theatre offers no marketing support, the theatre pays nothing to the production, and the production is responsible for covering a lot of the theatre’s expenses while occupying the space, in addition to giving it a (relatively small) percentage of the box office.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/26/24 at 9:40pm

also:

Sometimes on the road a show will be “fourwalled,” meaning that the production rents out the theatre and controls all revenue. So if the production rents the venue for $80K and the show grosses $100K, they get $20K profit (some of which goes towards talent salaries and operating costs). If they pay $100K and gross $50K, that’s a big loss.

This is usually how your local community theatre and some regionals pay for space, too.

That doesn’t usually happen for first-class tours or anything that’s on a subscription season.

This is also how Netflix handles its limited theatrical releases when it shows films at places like the Angelica or City Cinemas.