Marry Poppins SHARP decline- Page 2

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:25am

It would run six months and probably put the first nail in Disney Theatrical's coffin


- Didn't Tarzan do that? Thought it lasted longer than 6 months. Updated On: 10/13/08 at 01:25 AM

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:32am

I actually really liked TARZAN, more than The Lion King. Sure it wasn't the best piece of theatre but it was a nice change for one.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:36am

True Ljay.

I wonder if POPPINS has actually recouped yet? DISNEY and their hidden budget costs being what they are...

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:38am

I quite enjoyed Tarzan as well.

Let's not forget that it ran for more than a year, never dipped below 60% attendance and made about forty-five million during its run, which is nothing to sneeze at. I personally think it would have recouped if not for the years of development as a Cirque du Soliele-type production in theater-in-the-round. And the upcoming tour shows that Disney still has faith in the show, even if the Broadway version wasn't quite the smash hit they were looking for.
Updated On: 10/13/08 at 01:38 AM

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:45am

I just checked ibdb to confirm my thought that TARZAN couldn't have possibly run for more than six months, but apparently it had 486 performances and 35 previews- well over a year!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:47am

I don't think TARZAN made a profit of 45 Million Dollars....

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:47am

Tarzan opened I believe sometime around April 2006 and closed July 2007.

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:49am

Not profit, cumulative gross.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:52am

But the real question than should be - did it make any money at all? I bet the show as 15 million to develop and produce and probably had a high running cost. It could have run a year and still lost millions...

Disney can't depend on the grosses from LION KING to off-set all these projects that are losing dough. ..

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:54am

Every show except for Tarzan and Mermaid have recouped, and Mermaid is well on its way to recouping. So don't worry about Disney, between the old workhorses here on The Great White Way and several other countries, Disney on Broadway is still in great shape.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:58am

Its going to take THE LITTLE MERMAID years to recoup. That show had millions of dollars in development alone.

I wouldn't say the state of Disney Theatricals is in "great" shape. I'd say OK shape. Again, its all pretty much being bouyed by THE LION KING at this point.

Disney has made some cash off their stage productions but nothing compared to their film projects. Supposedly, the current heads of Disney aren't as gung-ho on the whole Broadway thing as during the Eisener years. I wonder if Disney's role on Broadway won't actually begin to downsize. Call it this decade's Disney Store Chain...
Updated On: 10/13/08 at 01:58 AM

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 2:06am

Michael, I've got to humbly disagree with you there, buddy.

The show has cumulatively grossed approximately $44,638,000. With weekly running costs of about 600K a week subtracted out (this is my guestimation, it could be up or down a hundred thousand or so) it has already grossed $28,200,000. I'm guessing the show cost somewhere between $20-25 million, so it should recoup within the next year.

Again, speculative on weekly costs and overall costs. If someone has hard facts, I'd love to hear.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 2:12am

Robert - Its not nearly as simple as that. I'm not going to go into the entire dynamics of theatre grosses divided by running costs+budget+advertising etc. but there is no way a musical that costs 20-30 million dollars is going to recoup in a year and a half at the less than capacity numbers MERMAID is pulling in. Its just not even feasable.

[Robert Taylor]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 2:34am

If it continues to bring in anywhere between 800,000 and over a million a week it should be able to. And yes, I am completely aware that there are other running costs such as advertising and such, but $45 million in less than a year is a HUGE number, almost a million a week on average, and despite the financial crisis it's still pulling them in week after week and showing no signs of stopping. Yes, there was a blip right after school started but it's improving every week since then, recently in the double digits, and with the holidays coming its poised to gross over a million a week on every holiday week. If this continues, and since TLM is one of, if not THE best loved Disney musical of the past 50 years, there is no reason tourists will stop flocking to it in droves and buying full-price tickets.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 5:32am

I found Mary Poppins to be FAR superior to LM in so many ways. (I truly HATED LM) Even my young children were dissappointed in it....my daughter LIKED it a lot, but she did PLAY Ariel in a summer camp type thing.

I think we are going to see a landslide number of shows to post closing numbers after the first of the year.

I liked Tarzan as well...I am always mystified by the bashing it gets. One of my favorites? No. One of my favorites as far as family theater goes? Top 5.

I'm not "officially" a Disney supporter or naysayer. The one thing in a positive light I will say: anything that is putting the love of theater (musical or otherwise) into kids can't be all bad. Even H.S. Musical...although that will KILL me if they produce that on B'way. As TV show, I saw the VERY positive effect it had on my students and their interest level. Especially BOYS. We'll just have to believe that as the "disney kids" grow up, so will their taste level and b'way will have a long and healthy future!

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 6:07am

Mary Poppins is playing to a very similar size audience that the West End one was playing to when it announced it's closure.

[winston89]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 6:16am

Poppins did recoup. So anything else that they are making is just extra profit. I would be wondering if they would be staying open if they had yet to recoup but considering that they did I think that they would hold out a little longer. This is a show that does good business during the holidays and it can afford to stay open until then. Yes, it is true that most shows don't make much money this time of year and some shows can't really manage to hold on till the holiday boost ( take a show like Legally Blonde for example) but Poppins is a show that can. I don't know if they will go the possible route of something like Spring Awakening and see how they will do during the fall to see if they should close during January.


If and when Poppins does close. I remember reading about how there was some talk about Disney renting out the theatre to other producers.

And, I don't think Disney was as happy with Tarzan because they had to dramatically retool the show and now it is a popular show in Europe. I think that if they had been happy with the original product then they would have left it as is.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 7:22am

Winston, you're 15 years old.

If adults in the business don't even know if POPPINS recouped, how could you?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 7:36am

Heh heh heh. That's makin' my signature.

[Peter872]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:00am

Mary Poppins recouped already in December 2007.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=23497

[James885]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:24am

Count me in among those who thought Poppins was far superior to The Little Mermaid. I thought the former was a fairly entertaining piece of theater that could probably stand to lose a few minutes, but was for the most part, well directed and choreographed. The Little Mermaid was an ugly, bloated, mis-directed mess. The only saving grace was the tuneful score and the talented cast. Since it alrady recouped, I think Poppins will probably close once Disney has another show for the New Amsterdam. Although I'd rather have Little Mermaid close, though I know that's not going to happen.

[winston89]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:25am

Foster you have no memory. If you recall it was announced that it recouped during the same time that they announced that Brown would do the national tour. Keep in mind she signed on and it was announced that she would do the tour before Lee ever signed on.

So, next time double check before you insult someone. Otherwise, (just like now) you will come of sounding like a complete moron.

If you actually read the thread Bennett asked if Poppins had in fact recouped. Robert Taylor said that it had and so did I. Someone asked a question of if it in fact happened and two people were saying it did.

Stop treating me like a child when in fact I am 19 and far from being a child anymore.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:34am

Well said winston

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 9:59am

Winston is right, actually. The Broadway production recouped around its one year anniversary, as I recall.

ETA...someone linked the article. There you go. Updated On: 10/13/08 at 09:59 AM

[winston89]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 10:59am

I remembered reading an article on playbill with the headline along the lines of "Poppins recoups, national tour to follow." But, when I just went back to search for it I couldn't find it.