How Much Does It Cost To Put On A Show? Kinky Boots' Initial Budget

This is interesting. http://www.playbill.com/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-put-on-a-broadway-show

The piece makes no sense. Ignore it: another incompetent effort by Playbill to pretend they are reporting something that's not in a press release. (Or maybe this was.)

That did feel more like a promo for the show. I am sure there are people here who would know, but I would suspect some of those percentages vary with each show. I feel like a bit more should go to the cast that brings the show to life 8 times a week. jmo

Creative team money would be way off unless Lauper got $2mil+ as an advance, which would be odd but I suppose possible.

Percentages vary by show, but remember that the actors are only being paid for rehearsal (and perhaps workshops) in the capitalization (which is what this is supposedly about, but obviously not-usher pay, for instance, is not capitalized).

@Gaveston, you can't have or not have umbrage without knowing and understanding the reported figures. I agree that creatives have worked a lot, generally, and are and should be well compensated, but the reported figure here is roughly $3.5mil, which is a freakishly lot of money. As I said earlier, it is misleading to focus on what the actors get, because most of their comp comes out of a different budget.

HogansHero said: "@Gaveston, you can't have or not have umbrage without knowing and understanding the reported figures. I agree that creatives have worked a lot, generally, and are and should be well compensated, but the reported figure hereis roughly $3.5mil, which is a freakishly lot of money. As I said earlier, it is misleading to focus on what the actors get, because most of their comp comes out of a different budget."

Also just to clear up any confusion - capitalization represents the up front fees paid to creatives, not the total amount they will make weekly (which is often in the 20%s-30%s of a shows weekly profit after recoupement). The main reason the upfronts may seem small for 'five, six, even 10 years of work' is because the creatives get to 'own' their work. This is a departure from film, where the fees paid on a screenplay are significantly higher, but then the production company owns the material.

for color, typical upfront fees to creatives for their work often range in the $20,000/$60,000 range, with some top names (obviously) demanding more. But $3.5mm of the total capitalization would be, frankly, ridiculous

This budget looked more like one that would be used to produce a non-profit, instead of commercial production.