Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 8/25/24- Page 2

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 9:14am

MayAudraBlessYou2 said: "Meanwhile, Water for Elephants looks to be done in by it's high operating costs. They are consistently dipping below them each week now."

I'm curious - do we know what the operating costs are for W4E? I've always assumed quite high, but don't remember reading any actual number.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 9:15am

I always thought BTTF interest would dry up, but it’s lasted longer than expected. Funny the movies that sell crazy well on stage vs the ones that don’t.

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 10:16am

GilmoreGirlO2 said: "MayAudraBlessYou2 said: "Meanwhile, Water for Elephants looks to be done in by it's high operating costs. They are consistently dipping below them each week now."

I'm curious - do we know what the operating costs are for W4E? I've always assumed quite high, but don't remember reading any actual number."

Part of me has assumed increased insurance costs RE: the circus performance

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 10:50am

The Broadway Journal reported that Water for Elephants has a weekly operating cost of approx $960,000. 

The circus elements, and sky insurance for those acts, really balloons the price.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 11:02am

MayAudraBlessYou2 said: "The Broadway Journal reported that Water for Elephants has a weekly operating cost of approx $960,000.

The circus elements, and sky insurance for those acts, really balloons the price."

I am assuming Water and Notebook have lowered weekly costs recently: the producer asks prolific shops, service providers, royalty participants, and others to waive their weekly fee, in the interest of getting the weekly nut down (and sometimes adding more advertising spend) so the show can ultimately have a longer run. Sometimes it also comes with a handshake agreement of the producer giving that entity their next show. Sometimes it involves star performers dropping down to the Equity minimum (Bernadette Peters in Gypsy, famously).

[Huss417]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 11:33am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Sometimes it involves star performers dropping down to the Equity minimum (Bernadette Peters in Gypsy, famously)."

I didnt know this. Is there an article or something that talks about her performing the role for minimum?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 11:47am

Huss417 said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Sometimes it involves star performers dropping down to the Equity minimum (Bernadette Peters in Gypsy, famously)."

I didnt know this. Is there an article or something that talks about her performing the role for minimum?"

Arthur Laurents discusses it in one of his memoirs and says that was the moment when she fully came into her own as Rose and the show became hers.

The salary drop occurred at the end of the run when the producers told her they were going to close, and she offered to reduce to minimum if that could keep it going for longer. Sometimes it gets reported that she waived her salary entirely, but an actor cannot earn less than AEA minimum.

[LuckyDipster]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 4:07pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I always thought BTTF interest would dry up, but it’s lasted longer than expected."

And yet it is into its third year in London.  That's another odd difference.  Shows that have different fates on either side of the Atlantic although I appreciate that it costs more to stage the show in NY than it does in London.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 5:03pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I always thought BTTF interest would dry up,but it’s lasted longer than expected. Funny the movies that sell crazy well on stage vs the ones that don’t."

I think BTTF has been helped because it is a show parents can bring kids to, and they hear about the car ‘flying out over the audience.’  Silly as the latter sounds, I have not seen the show — no interest — but I have read more about the curtain call than anything about the show itself.  

While it has lasted longer than the reviews would have suggested would be the case, I suspect the Broadway run will have lost the lion’s share of its investment, despite a likely 18 (15??) month run…at least if it is true that breakeven hovers at $1.0MM per week.

[mridley2]

Posted: 8/28/24 at 8:52pm

Kad said: "Book of Mormon is doing fine. While its grosses are generally trending downwards, they're not plummeting and it doesn't look like they dip into the red for any prolonged period of time. It still has at least a few years left."

1000% And if there is any risk of sales being "too soft" they will pitch in $1-2 Million in advertising spend and remind people why this is the funniest show on Broadway.