Failed Movie to Musicals — Page 3

Yeah a bunch of my friends actually got cast in a production of it in Norwell.

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I'd say that the definition of a flop has evolved over the last 30-40 years. During BW's Golden Age, a show could run for 6-8 months and turn a healthy profit. By the 1970s, many shows ran for a year or more and dropped millions. In 1979, an orchestra seat for the original SWEENEY TODD cost $15. It would now cost $120. That show ran for almost a year and a half and lost 35% of its initial investment, whereas the recent revival that ran for 10 months recouped in less than 6 months. Why? The weekly running cost for the stripped-down revival was minimal compared to the lavish 1979 original.

JECKYLL and HYDE ran for almost 4 years and lost money. The soon to be revived RAGTIME ran for 2 years just a decade ago and lost millions. The economics of BW have changed and, consequently, most musicals don't recoup. Expenses are just too great. If the initial investment is expensive (on-the-road changes, costly production values) and the weekly running costs are high, a show can meet the weekly expenses and stay open for years while never cracking that initial investent egg. That's show biz.

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Updated On: 7/24/12 at 11:37 PM

Failed movie to musicals on Broadway, or in general? Because you know, many flops do well in the West End

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It's an interesting conundrum, because audiences have this expectation of seeing a BIG production, which of course costs a bucketload of money to create. And yet that just raises the possibility if failure.

That's an interesting point. What I'll just never get is why producers keep investing in stage versions of movies that came out years ago. Sure, let's invest 25 million in ET:The Musical, shall we? I think it's obvious that the productions are too expensive to ever recoup, but also that these old franchises are not an audience draw.

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Updated On: 7/24/12 at 04:54 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/theater/25fran.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=theater

But he also said that because “Young Frankenstein” cost one and a half times more than “The Producers,” it would take the show that much longer to earn back its investment, which would seem to put the recoupment date beyond its Jan. 4 close.

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Updated On: 5/10/12 at 05:21 PM

I do hope Newsies and Once end up on the HITS list. I doubt Priscilla or Sister Act will, though.

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Wow, looking at the list in black and white makes you wonder why they keep investing in it!

Does anyone have a comparable ORIGINAL hit/flops list?

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BROADWAY ONLY from 1995 to 2013 UPDATE

HITS
THE LION KING
THE FULL MONTY
THE PRODUCERS
HAIRSPRAY
SPAMALOT
MARY POPPINS
BILLY ELLIOT

FLOPS
HIGH SOCIETY
BIG
FOOTLOOSE
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
URBAN COWBOY
DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG
THE WEDDING SINGER
TARZAN
GREY GARDENS
HIGH FIDELITY
LEGALLY BLONDE
XANADU
CRY-BABY
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
THE LITTLE MERMAID
9 to 5
SHREK
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
LEAP OF FAITH
PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
GHOST
SISTER ACT
HANDS ON A HARDBODY

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Hot September (Picnic)

Learner and Loewe's GiGi

Although the score is ravishing, especially "The Earth and Other Minor Things", "The Contract", and "In This Wide, Wide World".

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