ZannaDo: I am unaware of any official postings of advances, and I hope you prove me wrong. Shows have nothing to gain by publishing an official advance.
Liza's Headband: I assure you, in commercial theatre management is not included in a reported advance number. I see wraps for Broadway shows and from houses across the country for tours - unpaid groups is NEVER included. Ever.
Now you seem to have missed the point of my last post.
Is unpaid groups considered in decisions? of course.
Is it on the reports for sales? of course.
But it's not part of the actual advance in a commercial theatre. It's a fine point, and I think we think of these numbers the same way, but I believe it's important to make sure we are describing things accurately and to industry standard.
The advance for a theatre is always the actual money you have. As soon as that unpaid group pays for their tickets, that money is moved over to the advance. What you're saying is correct in theory - that that unpaid number is considered in decision making. That said, I promise you Jeffrey Seller is saying, "We have a $6.5m advance with $4m in unpaid group orders", not "We have $10m in the bank." Why? because they don't have 10m in the bank.
EDIT:
http://playbill.com/news/article/hamilton-sells-6.5-million-worth-of-broadway-tickets-in-11-days-344647 Even playbill says: "Sells 6.5 million worth of tickets in 11 days... with 4 million in group orders"
Updated On: 3/20/15 at 10:01 AM