Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 9/24/23- Page 3

[Huckster2]

Posted: 9/28/23 at 2:45pm

JSquared2 said: "Huckster2 said: "Unless we are producers, i not sure any of us know the true running cost of any show, especially now-a-days with the cost of everything But producers don’t make any money until investors are paid back in full.



Sorry, but that's just plain wrong. The "lead" producer(s) get a weekly producing fee, and very often also a weekly office fee. Not a ton of money, but they could easily get $10K-$15K per week (starting during rehearsals (or earlier)."

 

I stand corrected  lead producer does get the flat fee like you state but the other producers do not  

 

[LuckyDipster]

Posted: 9/29/23 at 4:17pm

Yes, there is a ton of BTTF merch.  I mean, they even have their own little shop next door to the theatre to accommodate it all.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 9/29/23 at 6:41pm

EDSOSLO858 said: "Jakeevan942 said: "JSquared2 said: "ACL2006 said: "Yet the producers of WICKED refuse to put the show up on TKTS. I believe that, for a while, they've been closing off the back of the mezzanine for weeknight performances. Why not just offer those seats on TKTS?"



It's all about perception. Most producers and marketing people believe that once people know that discounts are available, that's the end of full priced tickets. The producers would rather take the short term loss that risk losing far more in the long run.

"

Wicked has made enough money as a global product that the show can weather a few weeks of just doing break-even business. They don't want to diffuse the brand by going to TKTS, discount codes, etc, which is why we haven't seen either of those things from the show since the first year.

And regardless, I'm sure they'll get quite a bit of major market, national press out of Wicked Day weekend for the 20th anniversary this year, which should bring a renewed focus to the musical. "

And the movies, of course, if we decide to play the longer-term game."

I did a little research into last year.  There were 7 weeks in which the gross was below $1.4MM, the last one being the week ending October 2nd.  To date in 2023, this is the first week that Wicked has grossed below $1.4MM.  I did not attempt to compare grosses...there was no easy way to do so.  I suspect that worrying about 1 week's low gross is way premature to read anything into.  I suspect that it is not at TKTS because it wants to convey strength.  The irony, of course is that, given the average price of a ticket some of these weeks, they have been discounting every other wat possible, but in less visible ways.  It's all about image.

Ironically, Phantom went to TKTS after about 10 years as I remember, but I could be off by a few years.  That means that it managed to run for close to 20 years after going to TKTS.  That does make me wonder why they are not using it.  Two theories, both previously mentioned as possibilities:  hoping the 20th year celebrations will raise its visibility and get people to saying 'I haven't seen that in 15 years...' or that the movie will be such a hit that people want to see it live, i.e., hoping to re-capture Chicago's incredible gain from the movie's success.