Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 4/12/26 — Page 3

Mary_Poppins said: "No, kdogg36 clearly said: "The authors should get paid before anyone else, including the cast".

It was wrong of me to imply that the cast is not as important as the writers. I apologize for that.

With that out of the way - do you not think it is absolutely crazy that Broadway producers sometimes (often, it seems) expect writers to work for free?

Question: I have sometimes wondered if concessions and merchandise figures in into the weekly grosses. Just curious....

It's pointless but I keep playing the "what if?" game myself. I hate that Real Women and Outlaw had no chance because of the crowded season, and can't help but wonder what would have happened to them if they opened this season. (Of course they could still have flopped this year as well).

Sutton Ross said: "I would say it's almost certain that none of this season's new musicals will recoup, which isn't going to encourage investors to put money in new musicals for next season or any future season.

Completely agree, many investors have already pulled way back and long term this is a very bad situation for musicals and Broadway in general."

I think the investment problem really is not the low percentage of shows that recoup. It's low, but taking a wider look at the industry it's not significantly lower than pre-pandemic years. The problem is the shows that do recoup are not disbursing returns like hits.

We're seeing a lot of these celebrity plays end up with an ROI of only about 10%. They aren't losing any money, but they aren't really making any money. The runs are too short for investors to get much return, and the runs are also too short to make up any ground for a couple underperforming weeks. Dorian Gray announced it recouped during the final week of its run. They may have ended up with a 10% return after the tax credit. Snook spent most of the run doing 6 or 7 performances a week, and they only ran for 16 weeks. They had a few weeks at the start of previews that were healthy, but not boffo business, and there was very little room to make up for that. Had she done 7 or 8 performances a week, and had it lasted 20 weeks, some real money could have been made. Instead they got away with definition bare minimum.

This has effects downstream. Investors don't have hits that offset some of the losses anymore. Oh Mary is about the only show since the pandemic to pay off like a hit musical. If we want a decent number of musicals running, there have to be returns to offset musical risks. We have to reject celebrities that have a 10 or 12 week gap in their schedule. The celebrity makes out terrifically. The overall industry gains nothing.

The reality of the matter is that on top of labor costs being astronomically higher than ever before, we have a flood of Hollywood talent on Broadway. People are more inclined to spend their $200 on a celebrity in X play than a questionable new musical. The theater owners taste dictates the offerings and their selections haven't been top tier. It's a systemic issue in that regard. Revivals are a better bet because they're familiar and people have nostalgia for what they're seeing. I blame the powers that be. Lackluster new musicals don't program themselves.

I think we are also - which may be because of the current model - lacking in new composer talent. Besides Lin Miranda, there doesn't seem to be any big composers making new musicals. It's all teams of people we don't really know about - like Death Becomes Her. There does not seem to be anything exciting in the pipeline besides Sara B's new musical.

The composers are out there, believe me. Their works are not being produced at the Broadway level. They're getting degrees and winning awards and grants and then not having work produced.

(and Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, although not "names," have been out and working in NYC for a while)

Updated On: 4/15/26 at 03:29 PM

To further my point... something that doesn't get discussed enough is how many long-runners there are right now.

Right now, we have 21 shows from a previous season playing- mostly musicals but also three plays (Harry Potter, Stranger Things, Oh Mary)

Looking back in previous Aprils at how many shows from a previous season were still running:

2025 - 16 shows

2024 - 15 shows

2023 - 13 shows

2022 - 12 shows

Even pre-Covid in 2019, there were 19 shows.

So this is a very big number of unavailable theaters. Which may be harder for new musicals but certainly speaks to the overall health of Broadway and the art form of the musical

dramamama611 said: "RippedMan said: "I think we are also - which may be because of the current model - lacking in new composer talent. Besides Lin Miranda, there doesn't seem to be any big composers making new musicals. It's all teams of people we don't really know about - like Death Becomes Her. There does not seem to be anything exciting in the pipeline besides Sara B's new musical."



I think Dave Malloy would like to have a word with you. I'd plunk down big $ for almost anything he creates. No, it's not always stellar, but it is always interesting."

I'll give you that for sure. I really enjoyed Great Comet. And hopefully the movie of Octet is good ( did not care for that one).

We now have Cameron Mackintosh and Sonia Friedman and Andrew Lloyd Webber saying explicitly the costs are unsustainable. In the NYtimes article with Sonia Friedman if I recall it explicitly says investors are less willing to part with money now. We have shows closing early, less shows recouping and less quality shows being mounted. I grant you we might need to wait a few more years to be sure but the evidence is not looking good.


Also, it’s been a long time coming and a slow death. Just look at what shows are presented today vs the past. Casts are smaller, orchestras are smaller, sets are smaller. To cope with the rising costs for years producers have been chipping away at the bone and found a way to make it work. However, there is a point where there is no meat left to cut and we’re getting dangerously close to that point now.

The tragedy is that the market for Broadway has never felt healthier. People are willing to pay top dollar. Theatres can be full for a while. But it’s just not enough anymore.


You will always find exceptions and there will always be SOMETHING on a stage somewhere but I think it would be naive not to see that this artform is suffering right now from these economics conditions and think that it can go on forever. It’s a capitalist enterprise ultimately. And capitalism doesn’t work without capital.


Broadway has been a place of innovation and experimental musicals for decades. In these conditions do you think we will see people take as many risks as they have in the past? I see it moving towards more commercial viability (think of the concern already raised that people aren’t taking risks on new composers), low cost star driven plays etc. We are almost already there now. Practically all other examples have, are or will lose loads of money that don’t make a compelling case for it to continue in future.

Updated On: 4/16/26 at 03:07 AM