Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 4/8/2007 — Page 2

HOw much life do you think is left in Journey's End. I promised my Niece I would take her when she is her from LA in June.

Does the "This Week's %" column mark the percent of capacity filled that week, or the percent of the money spent that week made back?

If it represented the capacity one, how could any show go over 100%?

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Thanks, Margo! Here's another question: sometimes I hear someone saying on these boards that a show is losing money.

How (generally) can you tell? Is there somewhere you can go to find this out?

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While the exact amount of a show's nut (the amount it has to gross weekly to pay its costs) is generally confidential information that's not officially reported to the general public, the information for many shows does tend to get out (insiders have posted this info here and on other boards and Riedel will occasionally put that info in his column). The range can be anywhere from around $200,000/week (occasionally less) for small non-musical plays to over $600,000 per week for the biggest musical spectacles. If you have no idea of the amount, generally speaking (and I mean VERY GENERALLY), shows are often budgeted so that as long as attendance is approx. 65-70% (though this depends on how much it is discounting and how low its average ticket price is as a result) it's probably close to breaking even. If a show's attendance drops below 60-65%, in most cases that means it lost money for that week. But AGAIN, I'm speaking very generally.

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Updated On: 4/9/07 at 08:01 PM

Margo-
Would you mind answering one more Margo? People are saying The Pirate Queen numbers are bad. I don't know anything about numbers/percentages/grosses but it seems like they actually did well last week, especially since it was so heavily comp'd for Opening Night etc.

*I also heard from a cast member that PQ had their biggest day at the box office the day after all the negative reviews. As a fan of the show I hope it does well and can rise above the OVERLY negative press.

PIRATE QUEEN's grosses look fine to me, for now. While I have no idea what its weekly nut is, a $700,000 gross on 75% attendance seems encouraging, especially considering last week was their opening week when tons of comps are always given out, which usually cause a dip at the box office. With a reported $16 million capitalization, it has a very LONG way to go in order to recoup its investment (if the numbers stay where they are -- probably slightly profitable, but not much more -- and it doesn't become a sell-out hit, it'll take YEARS for it to recoup), but as of right now, it doesn't look to me like it's any danger of closing in the near future. We'll see where the numbers go in the next few months.

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Well done Rent yeeeah

And great to see Legally Blonde of to a strong start

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Beauty and the Beast had its highest non-Xmastime gross since at least 2002 and probably ever, and it has only had one week below $650K since mid-February. Is Disney sure it wants to close the show?

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I saw it, but since I attended the final invited dress and not a regular performance, I decided to refrain from posting a review. That said, I found that my own personal reaction to the show was more or less in line with most of the critical reviews -- the design and choreography were fine, but I had problems with various aspects of the book and score. At the end of the day it just wasn't my kind of show, though I wish it no ill will.

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Double Post

Updated On: 4/9/07 at 10:05 PM