How have the politics of ticket prices/show grosses changed in the last 10-15 years?

Back in the early 2000s, I went through a really huge Broadway fandom phase. Among other activities, I have memories of looking on Playbill.com to see how the gross/capacity of my favorite shows were doing. (In the intervening years I have continued listening to musicals and seeing local productions, but I haven't paid much attention to what's happening on Broadway)

I've been dipping my toes recently back in recently, and it's interesting to see what's changed while I've been away.

Is it just me, or has premium pricing and discount sites really changed the game? My recollection of back in the day was that a show selling at about 80% of capacity was doing pretty okay - obviously dependent on the their cost to run. Yes some shows went to TKTS, but I don't recall their percentage of max gross being such a big deal.

My impression is that in 2017, premium pricing and discounts play a much bigger role in how long shows can stay open. Does this sound about right, or was my high school self just missing a lot of the nuance?

Wick3 said: "Scalping is a bigger business now than it was back in 2000 as sites like stubhub and ticketmaster resale have become more prominent. It's also easier to buy tickets in the resale marketplace now than it was back in 2000.

Not sure what you mean by politics as it relates to ticket sales but I do think premium pricing is a result of seeing roughly how much center orchestra tickets can sell in the secondary marketplace. I also feel producers/box offices of hot shows tend to not release blocks of premium tickets until after the Tony nominations or after the Tony awards or roughly 2-3 weeks before the performance date to profit off of premium pricing.



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Politics probably wasn't the right word - it's more how the industry has changed. You probably have a point about the resale sites - my memory is that it used to be hard to get tickets, and that premium pricing started to be a think with The Producers (I think?), but there wasn't anything like $1,000 Hamilton tickets. Granted the producers may not get the profit from those resold Hamilton tickets.

There were scalpers back in 2000 but most stood outside the theater selling tickets in person (or asking down the line of theatergoers if they have a spare ticket he can buy and then resell at a profit. There are also ticket brokers that cater to tourists and visitors trying to get tickets to sold out shows.

Yes premium pricing started with the Producers. The producers of Producers probably noticed that their center orch seats were easily selling for $300-$400 in the secondary market so might as well price their best seats that way so that money goes to them rather than to scalpers.

For Hamilton OBC, ticket resale sites were easily selling tickets for over $800 so Hamilton producers started pricing center orch seats to $849 (or $999 during peak season.) And people are paying these crazy prices (but at least the money goes to the show.)

Updated On: 7/29/17 at 11:47 PM