Broadway Grosses This Week: Worse than Pitiful!- Page 2

[ILoveWicked330]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 8:43pm

I'm really surprised in Bklyn. I saw it Friday night and I sat in the orchestra. I think just about every seat was taken! I'd say 92% of the orchestra was taken. The cheap thing they did though was bribe people. The first 25 people to respond to an e-mail won 2 free tickets each for Brooklyn (that's why I went)...It was probably an excuse to make attendence % higher but I didn't care. IT WAS A FREE B-WAY SHOW!

[kim1061]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 8:58pm

I really hope BKLYN gets back up!
everyone go see it! Help it stay around till at least Easter!!

wow even wicked is down like a 1point and sum.

[mominator]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 9:12pm

With the February school break coming the numbers should start an upswing. We'll be seeing Movin Out DRS and FB. Movin Out will be a 2nd time for Dave and I but our daughter wanted to see it. Hopefully a 4th show can be squeezed in.

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 9:14pm

Operation promote Brooklyn!
Please, BWW bashers are NOT welcome!

http://www.brooklynthemusical.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2265

[magruder]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 9:25pm

Benzy wrote:

>Brooklyn, Beauty (or very close.. 450,000 enough?), Chicago (340,000 CANT be enough), Good Vibrations (reported to be 375,000 a week needed), La Cage prob. just above break even at 443,000, Rent (275,000 is break even Variety reported).. that means around 6 shows REALLY struggled last week<

The thing is with Beauty, Chicago and Rent, most long-running shows cut their operating expenses by reducing their advertising in January and February. You may see some maintenance ads in The New York Times on Wednesday, Friday or Sunday for them, but not a heck of a lot else. The reasoning is that a long-running show is dependent on tourists, and you don't need to spend a ton of money chasing after tourists that aren't in town. So you keep your ad budget low, so that you survive and reduce your weekly operating expense. Chances are, all three of those shows broke even last week. And even if they didn't, they have made so much money for their producers that they can afford to float them for a couple of weeks at a mild loss, if necessary.

Good Vibrations, La Cage and Brooklyn are more vulnerable, as they are newer and still need to make some noise in the marketplace to let people know they are here.

Updated On: 2/7/05 at 09:25 PM

[BoxFive]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 9:30pm

Well said Mag, the one show here in real trouble is BROOKLYN, it's advance is terrible and at the moment it's energy is fading.

Good Vibrations might benefit from a radical change in advertising, time to showcase the bodies, get rid of the foolish logo and embrace the camp aspects of the show.

La Cage, hmmmm, I expected this to tumble, once again Jerry Zaks hollow direction kills another classic, "Have some more gags, less heart Albin?"

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 9:31pm

Well said, Magruder. Those other shows are in a very different position, because, being long-running hits, they've already recouped and have a lot more flexibility financially during the winter doldrums when the box office is down. Brooklyn, La Cage et al, are still just struggling to even survive (forget about paying back their investors at this point).

[magruder]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 9:38pm

The Variety piece about business last week actually makes the following salient point about La Cage:

"The musical-revival genre continues to suffer. "La Cage aux Folles" ($443,057) took the biggest hit last week, down $128,186 and playing to 60.8% after only two months on the boards.

By comparison, the "Fiddler on the Roof" ($521,935) revisit almost looks robust in its second year. Receipts there were off $47,857."

[Jwei123]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 10:26pm

It's a shame that La Cage went down that much. I hate when bad things happen to good shows

[javero]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 11:21pm

Just think, last year this time we were administering last rite's to 'Taboo' and 'Anna in the Tropics' while maintaining a bedside vigil for 'Aida'. I personally would like to see new works staged on BWay. Some of the musicals have run for what seems like an eternity.

[BEKA531]

Posted: 2/7/05 at 11:45pm

CONGRATS TO WICKED! IT IS A REAL BROADWAY SHOW! IT IS CAPABLE OF DIPPING BELOW 100%!

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 12:08am

LOL BEKA. Wicked dipped below 100% once in November or something, and people freaked out. I think they were at 99.8% that week.

[Albin]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 6:15am

"I think it is interesting that Good Vibrations had about the same percentage as The Producers, Chicago, Beauty and the Beast, and more than Rent and La Cage..."

It's like a bad car accident...you're repulsed by it, yet can't help looking at it...

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 6:20am

I do not know if it was the Super Bowl or what but TKTS was almost deserted for a Saturday matinee.

[DreamFlyer22]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 8:09am

Ooof. But, yeah. As everyone said... it's February. It's bound to be pretty damn lean right now.

Heh. Ya know, I was toying around with the idea, but I might just pop down to the city this coming weekend to support my friendly local (okay, so it's a 3 1/2 hour drive..) Broadway. Been meaning to catch a show lately...

[mirramar]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 10:32am

The only reason Good Vibrations got the percentages it received this week is b/c they're practically giving away tickets to it, and b/c it's a newer show - so even though it's terrible - suckers like me who need to see everything will still see it.
And the February dip is completely normal for this time a year, it's not tourist season anymore.
As a side note - Brooklyn completely deserves the lack of attendence it's getting - it's a terrible show. The only thing good about it is Eden Espinoza. Oh, and the costumes were interesting.

[GirlfriendFromCanada]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 11:01am

But in the case of GV, the gross still seems relative to the percentage. Which again leads me to ask how papering affects the gross, and if the face value of the tickets does go into the weekly reports, since the money is going to the producers, just coming from them as well.