How long will it take for Cinderella to recoup?

Cinderella had an estimated cost of $14 Million to stage on Broadway.
According to Playbill Vault, Cinderella has an average capacity of 78%, with an average ticket price of $88. Because the budget of Cinderella was around 1.45x that of an average show, I will estimate its running costs of that of 1.45x of an average broadway musical, which would give it an average weekly running cost of $855,143, but because the running costs don't increase on a slope of 1 with a budget, closer to a .85 slope, I'll estimate its weekly running costs of $750,000 a week. Based on average ticket prices and capacity, multiplied by the 1,761 seats in the broadway theatre and the 8 shows that it runs per week, Cinderella makes $967,000 dollars a week, or $217,000 in profit per week. This would mean that it would have to run for 64.5 weeks, or 516 performances. So, with room for error, I would say that Cinderella has to run for 500 performances, give or take, running at the current average in order to turn a profit.

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Updated On: 11/13/13 at 06:59 PM

Sorry, last thing. I can also safely say that Cinderella will not make it to 500 (give or take) performances due to the fact that the weekly gross has been going down below my $750,000 estimation of running costs fairly regularly. Though it will pick up in December, and has been in November, shows characteristically drop a lot in January and February, as does most entertainment ventures, and considering that Cinderella is border lining the profit margin weekly, it will not survive the usual 10% drop in non-mega-hit shows that comes in the winter months, and will therefore close before the 500 performance mark. In addition, the average capacity will keep going down, and Cinderella will therefore have to run for even longer to make back its money, which will be less and less likely to happen.

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I know this thread is over a year old--but has this show ever recouped? I do not remember seeing it announced anywhere?

Thanks

I don't believe it has recouped.

They have had a lot of lean weeks where they probably just barely cleared running costs, and many where I would wager to say they were running in the red and dipping into their reserve. It's certainly not a cheap show to run. The weekly dry cleaning costs alone are probably pretty astronomical.

I think there running costs could be higher just from the celebrities they have had in the cast. I certain their salaries are larger than what the original cast had been paid.

I can assure you that the producers who financed the production were not concerned with reviving the R&H brand and Cinderella copyright.

The tour is selling very well. I would not be surprised if this recouped on the road.

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From what I understand, Cinderella has paid back between 60 to 70% of its investment, prior to the holiday season, during which it has done very solid business. It grossed over $1.3 million last week for only seven performances, and I think that it's pretty much selling out all nine performances this week at a fairly high average ticket price. So it wouldn't surprise me if it grosses north of $1.7 million this week, which even for nine performances is pretty darn good. So with those numbers, added to a very strong season from Thanksgiving week on, you'd think that it will pay back at least another 10-15% after it closes, which would lead me to estimate that the Broadway production standing alone will pay back somewhere between 70-85%, and I'd bet it's in the upper portion of that range.

Tours don't pay a whole lot back to the mother company, but with tour profits and subsequent licensing fees it would seem likely that it will either recoup or come very close. And if one invested in both the NY production AND made a separate investment in the tour, which is, as noted, doing extremely well, that person should make money. But not every NY investor makes an additional investment in a tour, something which is true for every show.

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