Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 12/17/17 — Page 2

Does anyone have a concept of OOTI's weekly running costs/the amount of money put into it? I saw it on Saturday with my drama club and couldn't imagine it's anything too overwhelming for them—considering the moderately sized cast and small band. I'd figure they'd be more worried about long-term investments. My drama teacher spent half the train ride back home expressing her bewilderment at how much money had to have been put into the show (though I personally didn't get the impression it was a huge amount?).

Pauly3 said: "The similarities between Come From Away and Once On This Island's first 5-6 weeks numbers are remarkably close. Out of the gate, each show's Gross % Potential, Ave. Paid and Seat % Sold are all quite similar."

None of those mean diddly squat, not to mention that they are not comparable. Look at the grosses. Then get back to us.

kclahar said: "^^^ I am definitely among those who arewary about reliving 9/11. I am glad that people are finding the showuplifting, and that it is doing well, but I doubt if I'll have the courage to see it myself."

For what it's worth, kclahar, I was one of the first people on here to write with extreme trepidation about the show when it was announced (the source material itself, let alone performing it in Manhattan). But putting my guard down and getting a ticket was one of the best decisions I've made as a theatergoer. It's really not a "9/11 musical." How we handle our grief of that day is entirely personal of course, but I hope you'll get to see this unbelievably uplifting, hopeful show.

haterobics said: "Jarethan said: "Actually your memory is faulty on this one; much to my surprise, Come From Away sold out from the very first performance and has not had an empty seat since then. You can see this by looking at the box office history for CFA. Sellout from Day 1."

The first few weeks were heavily discounted, and they technically fell 153 seats shy of this claim being true in week three."

So what? Lots of shows have been discounted and not come anywhere near sold out. 153 tickets in one single week. You seriously have to be kidding.

kclahar said: "Jarethan said: "I am thinking that Spongebob needs to come up with a brilliant marketing campaign or it is not going to make it. So too with Once On This Island if it is going to return its investment. Re Spongebob,Frozen is just around the corner and, if it is well received, Spongebob will lose unless it is already a hit by that time. Hopefully, I am wrong or they will come up with the marketing campaign. Where is Ed Sullivan when we need him? (I have to admit that I still have no interest in seeing it, but I certainly want any show that gets good reviews to have a chance).

Also, I am absolutely amazed at this point with Come From Away. I liked it when I saw it early in the run, enjoy the cast recording even more, and still did not expect it to 'enter the zeitgeist' along with Evan Hansen last season. You never know. The interesting thing is that I still know people who won't see it because they 'don't want to be reminded of 9/11', despite being told how uplifting it is."

^^^ I am definitely among those who arewary about reliving 9/11. I am glad that people are finding the showuplifting, and that it is doing well, but I doubt if I'll have the courage to see it myself.

"

It's not that kind of show at all. it takes place at that time of course and we all know what's happening out there. But this focuses on the town and striving to do the right thing because you are human and you care. It's not like you forget why this is happening but it's just such an uplifting show, it's about the goodness not the evil. It's not re-living 9/11 at all. It's how you overcome it with grace and humanity.

Jarethan said: "So what? Lots of shows have been discounted and not come anywhere near soldout. 153 tickets in one singleweek. You seriously have to be kidding."

You're the one who said it never had a single empty seat since it opened. Don't blame me for wondering if that was true, heh.

HogansHero said: "Pauly3 said: "The similarities between Come From Away and Once On This Island's first 5-6 weeks numbers are remarkably close. Out of the gate, each show's Gross % Potential, Ave. Paid and Seat % Sold are all quite similar."

None of those mean diddly squat, not to mention that they are not comparable. Look at the grosses. Then get back to us."

HogansHero, your post here surprises me a bit, as I'm a fan of your thoughtful comments on this board, but this almost seems like someone got ahold of your computer and posted your message.

Grosses don't have much meaning because you're comparing a 700 seat theatre to a 1050 seat theatre. Something Rotten consistently had high grosses, ran for two years, and couldn't even come close to recouping. It's gross % potential hovered around 60% for a lot of that time.

Jarethan, "Selling out" is also a bad metric to follow because producers could easily take all the left over tickets and sell them for $20 each. And frankly, shows like OOTI and Come From Away that show 60% of gross % potential, but are 100% full, are practically giving tickets away for pennies. I don't think it's a bad strategy in smaller theatres, but it certainly makes it confusing for folks on these message boards who like to follow the numbers.

Gross % potential doesn't tell the FULL story and has its own flaws (namely, how a show defines its potential -- I've seen that potential number manipulated, or in the case of Hamilton, inflated), but generally is a better way to look at how well a show is doing.

It took Come From Away 22 weeks to hit 100% gross % potential. It started off in the 50-60% range, like OOTI, and took a while before word of mouth caught on. The two shows have a ton of similarities. Are they both about 9/11? No. Of course, they have differences too.

Compare CFA's ramp up to success via word of mouth to a show like Dear Evan Hansen which got to 100% in 5 weeks, and you can see why I am more likely to compare word-of-mouth favorite OOTI to word-of-mouth favorite Come From Away, and not compare it to other shows that caught fire immediately.

Warbucks2 said: "HogansHero said: "Pauly3 said: "The similarities between Come From Away and Once On This Island's first 5-6 weeks numbers are remarkably close. Out of the gate, each show's Gross % Potential, Ave. Paid and Seat % Sold are all quite similar."

None of those mean diddly squat, not to mention that they are not comparable. Look at the grosses. Then get back to us."

HogansHero, your post here surprises me a bit, as I'm a fan of your thoughtful comments on this board, but this almost seems like someonegot ahold of your computer and posted yourmessage.

Grosses don't have much meaning because you're comparing a 700 seat theatre to a 1050 seat theatre. Something Rotten consistently had high grosses, ran for two years, and couldn't even come close to recouping. It's gross % potential hovered around 60% for a lot of that time.

Jarethan, "Selling out" is also a bad metric to follow because producers could easily take all the left over tickets and sell them for $20 each. And frankly, shows like OOTI and Come From Away that show 60% of gross % potential, but are 100% full, are practically giving tickets away for pennies. I don't think it's a bad strategy in smaller theatres, but it certainly makes it confusing for folks on these message boards who like to follow the numbers.

Gross % potential doesn't tell the FULL story and has its own flaws (namely, how a show defines its potential -- I've seen that potential number manipulated, or in the case of Hamilton, inflated), but generally is a better way to look at how well a show is doing.

It took Come From Away 22 weeks to hit 100% gross % potential. It started off in the 50-60% range, like OOTI, and took a while before word of mouth caught on. The two shows have a ton of similarities. Are they both about 9/11? No. Of course, they have differences too.

Compare CFA's ramp up to success via word of mouthto a show like Dear Evan Hansen which got to 100% in 5 weeks, and you can see why I am more likely to compare word-of-mouth favorite OOTI to word-of-mouth favorite Come From Away, and not compare it to other shows that caught fire immediately.


You absolutely make a valid argument. That said I remember being really surprised that it sold out (minus 27 seats in week 3) from the first preview. I remember wondering at the time whether the producers were happy or unhappy that they sold so many discount tickets in advance, not expecting the interest to be as hot as it turned out to be. I wondered if they regretted not discounting a smaller percentage...as I remember the discounts were steep).

Of course, at the point it doesn't seem to matter a bit. I think the show has entered into that area that very few shows achieve. People who never go to the theatre want to see it. I am sure that it will run multiples longer than the producers ever expected, e.g., 6 years vs. 6 months?

@Daddy Warbucks, thanks for the post. My post was not as complete as it should have been. I should have said that, of the reported information, the relevant one is the grosses. Then, of course, you have to consider that against at least a decent estimate of costs to make sense of it. That is going to be at least a little affected by the house size, but you can put a cheap show in a big house and an expensive show in a small one, so it is really the relationship of the grosses to the nut that are key.

@Daddy Warbucks "I just think it has some of the same things going for it, and has started off in a similar financial zone."

I don't see them as similar in the metrics that (per what I said before) matter. Specifically, through the first 6 frames (adjusting for the partial first weeks), the average weekly net gross available to the productions were approximately $672k for CFA and $436k for OOTI. I don't know the nut for either but I'd venture to say CFA made money and OOTI lost money. So that, to me, is quite the opposite "zone." Beyond that, yes, they may arguably have some of the same things going for them.