Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 3/3/24 — Page 2

The massive change on Broadway is that audiences are being more discriminating with their ticket purchases because time and money are valuable. This season has, so far, given us a handful of mediocre new musicals that haven't caught on because they haven't generated honest audience interest. And musicals 'simply' adapted from hit movies and pop songs are not selling well either.

Yes, this is happening with film too -- the answer is clear: audineces want something uniquely exciting enough to get them to go to a theatre. We have had massive hits this year at the movies (Dune, Oppenheimer, Barbie) and I think we can trust when the creative elements are right, we will continue to have massive hit musicals on Broadway too. Truthfully, the trajectory of this season is typical -- an honest hit musical is a unicorn. Most of what opens in any given season comes and goes rather quickly.

QueenAlice said: "The massive change on Broadway is that audiences are being more discriminating with their ticket purchases because time and money are valuable. This season has, so far, given us a handful of mediocre new musicals that haven't caught on because they haven't generated honest audience interest. And musicals 'simply' adapted from hit movies and pop songs are not selling well either."

While I think audiences are being discerning about what they want to spend money on, that's not exactly new.

It's doubtful that DAYS OF WINE & ROSES would have found real commercial success in any season outside of unique circumstances (such as opening in April when the crop of new musicals had been exceptionally bad, and then winning Best Musical). Same goes for OHIO and AIN'T NO MO and other shows whose closings have been lamented.

Plenty of adult-oriented musicals and film adaptations have failed financially over the years (Bridges, Strange Loop, Paradise Sq, Girl from the North Country, Flying Over Sunset [I know that was a nonprofit but still], Allegiance, Amelie, American Psycho, It Shoulda Been You, etc)

Ermengarde and BJR -- thank you for fleshing out thoughts I was trying to articulate. Audiences being discriminating is nothing new, but something has changed post COVID, and its hard to pinpoint exactly what it is -- it is indeed a change in buying habits, a change in how people prioritize their time, and what they are willing to pay money to experience.

Experience, to me, being the operative word when it comes to entertainment. Live events featuring mega pop stars are an experience. Going to a movie theatre or a Broadway show to see something midly entertaining, I think for many, isn't worth the investmet of time or money. We get midly entertaining content all day long on Tik Tok, social media, etc and its short and its free. Television changed the kinds of plays audiences wanted to see on Broadway 60 years ago ,and now, years later, culture and technology is continuing to change those tastes.

I guess I don't see this as some new trend or pandemic related thing. New musicals have always struggled to break through. For every Dear Evan Hansen, there's 5-10 Groundhog Days.

For many years, including well before COVID, the breakout original musicals were exceptions not rules. Shows like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away - those are exceptions, not the norm. The problem is there just hasn't been a show like that the past couple seasons. You have to look back to Six or Hadestown probably for a show that fits the bill.

But pre COVID and now, it's huge IP and/or star driven revivals that have the highest batting average. Original musicals need to capture the zeitgeist in other ways and there just hasn't been one recently. Even well received shows in other places like Hell's Kitchen or The Notebook haven't been as buzzy as something like Hamilton or Six was before opening. It's always going to be an uphill battle to make new musicals work. That isn't something new.

When looking at profit margins, you also can't beat an original hit musical. Something like SIX or RENT or DEH or even HADESTOWN can clean up. When dealing with IP source material and pop song licenses and star salaries and other things of that nature, the profits become, proportionately, lower by quite a bit. (Not that anyone involved with Juliet or the Beetlejuice tour should be mad about the profits that those productions have made.)

Updated On: 3/6/24 at 02:21 PM

Kad said: "And if you're doing a jukebox show around the music of one artist, you've effectively limited your potential audience to only those people who are fans of that artist. For some artists, like Michael Jackson, that is a really, really broad audience so it's not a problem- but then for A Beautiful Noise, the audience for Neil Diamond is much narrower."

And even if the audience base for said artist is huge, it's not a guarantee of success. Look at 'Once Upon a One More Time'.

I mean, had JULIET not existed and already been a hit, there's a chance that ONCE UPON might have done better. Even if, qualitywise, JULIET is like a 6.5 or 7 out of 10, whereas ONCE UPON was more like a 4.

Kad said: "Once Upon a One More Time is a weird case in that it was Britney's song catalog but a story that... was mostly unrelated to Britney in any way aside from some really loose themes. It was a confused production with confused marketing."

I found quite a few coincidences between Cinderella's story and what Britney went through for the past 15 years. The idea of Cinderella being trapped and unhappy in a perfect fairy tale to the outside world, a narrator controlling every aspect of her life and decisions, a stepmother and stepsisters that only cared about themselves, and Cinderella's quest to free herself. I loved the musical, but I understand that fans like me want to see Britney performing live, and not a tribute. She's 42 so I'm not interested in a musical specifically based on her life yet, she's too young and she has a lot to live.

Updated On: 3/6/24 at 04:31 PM

Pretty impressed that in his first week of previews Jeremy Stong in Ibsen grossed more than Jessica Chastain in he entire run of A Dolls House, arguably a more famous play than Enemy. I would have thought that JC would have been a bigger draw.

Amazed that the highest average ticket price was for a drama; good for them! Bodes well for the move to the Belasco.

Broadway Flash said: "I heard better word of mouth from one more time than Juliet. I personally loved one more time and loathed Juliet."

I didn't loathe Juliet but I agree that Once Upon...was much more engaging than Juliet in my experience and the songs were more fun.

Im calling Suffs as Best new musical. It’s selling pretty well, is about important stuff, and will get good reviews. The only other competitor I see is The Outsiders.

Broadway Flash said: "Im calling Suffs as Best new musical. It’s selling pretty well, is about important stuff, and will get good reviews. The only other competitor I see is The Outsiders."

Uh, what? This show is miles from breaking even right now and is, in spite of everything, still the same show that got middling reviews at the Public.

They would need to have done Next to Normal level changes (may we all remember the sweeping changes from Second Stage to the Booth)

BJR said: "Falsettolands said: "Broadway Flash said: "Uh, what? This show is miles frombreaking even right now and is, in spite of everything, still the same show that got middling reviews at the Public.



Is it? Have you seen it yet? Didn't we hear they were making changes..."

If you had read the rest of the post, then you’d understand that I asserted they’d need to be making SIGNIFICANT changes :)

”they said they were” alright let’s see then, shall we? But I’m not dealing with nonsense suggesting Suffs is the hit of the season form even a monetary perspective

Updated On: 3/7/24 at 09:27 AM