How much $$$...

do the big on shows broadway cost to run each week???

i was really wondering about
-rent
-wicked
-phantom
-color purple
-tarzan
-wedding singer

no, not how much it makes each week. i was wondering how much it costs to produce each week.

$900,000???? If that were true, only a few shows would ever be able to turn a profit. The question was how much COST to run the show, not how much the shows grossed weekly.

Rent is one of the cheaper ones. I think it's break is is around $300,000 to 350,000 per week, which is the main reason it's been able to survive so many years, even during times when its attendance numbers dipped to 60%.

The most expensive shows generally break even around $600,000 to 650,000. Producers rarely budget a show higher than that because, unless you're selling out (or close) every week, it's very hard to remain profitable.

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Sorry Margo. For some reason I was thinking gross numbers. Thanks for clarifying that. Was there ever a show that cost $900,000 or more just to maintain?

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What about Follies?

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Not that I've ever heard of. Shows generally are capitalized and budgeted to be able to break even as long as attendance is 65-70% (depending on how many discount tickets are being sold every week). Only a handful of shows ever gross over a million dollars weekly and no producer is going count on being able to bring in that much every week -- it's great if it happens, but a financially prudent producer never assumes that it will. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing Wicked may be the most expensive show right now (other than maybe Tarzan or Lion King, but Disney doesn't release its financial figures), costing around $700,000 or so, but given that it grosses $1.4 million most weeks, obviously it's making huge profits (premium seating helps).

Sunset Boulevard made the mistake of budgeting the show so expensively that it had to do something like 75-80% weekly in order to break even. That was fine when Glenn Close was in the show and it was a selling out, but after she left, the show struggled at the box office and eventually lost millions.

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Updated On: 4/22/06 at 05:41 PM

The "general" rule of thumb is ideally you want your show to be breaking even at around 60%

Actually, the Nederlander minimum is 4 musicians. If somebody really wants all the house requs for musicians or any other weekly op costs, PM me...

There have been lots of concessions with the walkers issue over the years since the last contract renegotiation.

Even taking everything else into account, Rent is still one of the cheapest musical shows on Broadway at around $300,000/week to run (I've heard $315,000 is the exact number).

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Perhaps cheap was the wrong choice of word, but certainly the shows I mentioned are not as expensive to produce day to day as Wicked for instance.

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LOTR will definately have to cut costs if it plans on coming to NY. I can't see it lasting too long if it were to cost that much at a legit musical theatre.

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I understand that. But with the way Broadway economics go, and from what's been said above, they'd be risking A LOT of money.

Plus, you're not taking into consideration that they could make time cuts. Shows over 3 hours in the US at least cause the production to have to pay overtime to certain personel because of unions.

With LOTR being as massive as it is, it's more than likely that they'll be making some cuts here or there for other productions, especially with pretty much all of the reviews saying it was slightly weak in structure at certain points.

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I have a feeling everybody in Sweeney get paid a respectable salary. They are all so talented!