Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 10/23/22 — Page 2

The Piano Lesson had a very significant increase, yet the capacity went down. I'm wondering what's the reason for such a big jump

Six's weekly grosses haven't dipped below $1million since February, and the show has got to be pretty cheap to run. I'm not at all concerned about it's long-term viability, and imagine it will run for at least another couple of years.

And, honestly, once the time comes for it to pack it up on Broadway, I wouldn't be surprised to see it continue to have a healthy run at a place like New World Stages. It seems like the perfect show for that kind of venue.

ITW may not look to transfer theaters with numbers like that.

Hadestown is still nearly selling out but has a low average ticket. Interesting.

Gotta say, the consistency of THE BOOK OF MORMON never ceases to surprise me. What a smash

veronicamae said: "Matt Rogers said: "LukeDAP2 said: "Wow, FG got to$1,723,800!"

Not hard to do when the producers are charging over $400 for many seats and idiots are buying them."

Hi, welcome to Economics 101."

Yawn. As if no greedy producer ever posted that exact sentiment 15,000,000 times on this board in the past.

Alexander Lamar said: "What was the reason gross potential isn’t being calculated (or shared)?"

There really is no such thing as a set gross potential anymore with most if not all shows using dynamic pricing. The price of a given seat could fluctuate dramatically from one performance to the next for a show's eight performance week.

saxpower, I will respond below:



saxpower said: "I'm not really verse in Broadway economics and am looking at the data from a general logic standpoint- which may or may not have anything to do with Broadway reality, but two questions.

1. People have been predicting the end ofHadestownfor a while now. While its not selling out, its fairly close to doing so. Given the amounts being discussed, its decrease in Gross was fairly modest. In fact, attendance and (from a percentage standpoint) decrease in gross are akin to Wicked.Yes, Wicked's gross is much higher but (a) this is largely because of the difference in size between the Gershwin and Kerr and (b) Wicked 's operating costs must be significantly higher thanHadestown.My question is, given this, why are people believingHadestownis at (pardon the pun) date's door? The number of seats filled does not matter –– it's all about the gross potential. It probably costs about $650-700K a week to run. So it's definitely teetering on the edge of starting to lose money. However, this past week the show did about $100K more than it did a month ago. But if it's doing these numbers now, it doesn't bode well for the dark days of January/February.

2. With respect the new musicals still in previews, wouldn't it be expected (outside something likeHamilton) that % of capacity and grosses be lower than an officially opened show? i can see KPOP's figures (around 80% capacity) be concerning but wouldn'tAlmost Famous' andKimberly Akimbo'sfigures (around 90%) be at least somewhat promising for previews? Yes, I know some of those figures are due to papering but if it was just that you'd thinkKPOP''snumbers would be better." People (myself included sometimes) are quick to jump on new musicals that start softly. When in reality MOST shows start off by discounting. The issue is when you have a small theatre and subject matter that may not appeal to large swaths of people. Shows like KIMBERLY were already viewed as risks; now those predictions are seeming real. It means if the shows don't get rave reviews that change the box office, they will have no choice but to close. On the flip side, positive WOM and reviews and a savvy ad campaign could turn their business around.

^Solid analysis, but you buried the lede.

Regardless of capacity, discounts, averages, etc., one can simply take a look at the grosses themselves to see that Six hasn’t taken a decline. They’ve been seeing a consistent, healthy fluctuation between $1MM and $1.3MM.

This week’s gross was $1.19MM, so pretty much smack dab in the middle of that range.

So:

(a) They have, quite demonstrably, NOT taken a meaningful decline.

(b) While I’m sure they’d rather have a $1.3MM week than a $1.0MM or $1.1MM week, they don’t actually need it. It’s a comparatively cheap show to run, and the capitalization is probably fairly low too. Their margins are to die for.