Notreallysilent 2 said: "I know this was talked about a little in another grosses thread, but I'm really interested in how wicked is making more than it's potential gross without SRO. "
I'm no expert here but I have been following the Hamilton grosses and gross potential for a few weeks now. First off, SRO would be part of the total gross if they sold them. As for Wicked or any other show, it is possible to have less than 100% attendance yet still have over 100% in potential gross.
Think of the theater seating chart as a template, with each seat assigned a set price. If every single seat is sold at its assigned set price, then the total $$$ the show gets is the total potential gross, in this case for Wicked it would be $1,779,845. If you look at the weekly history, you'll see that number as a constant for any week that has 8 performances.
Producers, however, know that investors will be happier if they see over 100% in potential gross in the reports. How do they accomplish that? By changing some seats' assigned set price to a premium seat price. My belief is that the producers and box office can alter pricing of seats in certain performances (most likely evening performances... especially Saturday eve) if they think they can sell those seats at the premium price. This is partly the reason why each week the average price sold is different.
Again, I don't work in the theater industry nor in the financial industry but these numbers do interest me and the above is what makes sense in my head. I, too, would like to learn more as these 'adaptive' pricing is very interesting.