WestEndGal said: "I’m glad Shucked is steadily increasing its capacity and grosses but at some point they’re gonna need to increase ticket prices right, because surely it can’t survive too long when average ticket price is under $90? I don’t know how much the show costs to run though so who knows!"
Shucked's operating costs are somewhere around $650K, so its making money. Its lead producer stated in his interview with deadline that the show started making money last week with an $82 average price. He has stated in several interviews he'd rather have the house full and discounted then make the same amount of money by having the house be partially empty, but at a higher ticket price. He's truly embracing the dynamic pricing model productions fully adopted after the pandemic, so if demand continues to rise the average ticket price will rise with it. He just knows the show works best when playing to a full house, so in order to maintain the shows great word of mouth prices will only rise if the show sells out at that price point.
When shows first fully embraced dynamic pricing they saw it as a way to remove discount codes and keep prices high unless you purchase tickets at the very last minute. Look at Tina which played to 64% capacity with a $123+ average ticket price or Mr Saturday Night, which played to 75% capacity with a $122+ average ticket price. Over this past winter and into the spring though we are seeing more shows, specifically new musicals, find the proper price point to fill the houses, but still make money even if the margins are smaller.
This is creating a divide between limited runs which have a much higher price point to both make a profit and recoup their capitalization by the end of their run versus open ended musicals that simply need to turn a profit, while keeping audiences coming back for a long enough period to turn a profit. This is why we are seeing limited run plays like Good Night, Oscar or Leopoldstad playing at 60-80% capacity with an average ticket price of $105-$140+ versus new open ended musicals like Kimberly Akimbo and Shucked playing to 90%+ capacity with an average ticket price between $75-$90. The question for the new pricing model for new musicals though is will they eat through their potential audiences at too low a price point preventing them from ever being able to turn a profit.
This is the question for a show like Kimberly Akimbo a prestige production that typically do buffo business for the first 3 months before the bottom falls out of its sales, which is what we saw in the spring after its grosses steadily climbed between December and February only to take a nose dive in March. Luckily it seems likely the Tony Awards should give it a second wind through the summer, where I suspect producers will raise that average price significantly higher than the $93 we saw over the winter.
Updated On: 5/26/23 at 11:37 AM
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