The Great Comet to Rise Again in Tokyo

You can't believe it because...?



This is old news, and the production starts in a few months.

I feel like the most surprising thing about that initial article is that after 18 years of licensing, Suessical investors still haven't made back their initial investment.

HogansHero said: "raddersons said: "I feel like the most surprising thing about that initial article is that after 18 years of licensing, Suessical investorsstillhaven't made back their initial investment."

Revenue to investors from licensing is an extremely small slice of the pie. It is a percentage (typically 40%) of the AUTHOR'S ROYALTY not the box office. So let's say a show grosses (net) $100 million. The royalty for aproduction like Comet in Japan might be 6% +/-, which would be $6Million. 40% of that would be $2.4 Million before not-insignificant overhead. And of course amateur and school licensing is going to bring in a few thousand dollars each which means you need a huge number to make an impact and when they occur over a period of years you have overhead in each. (i.e. the money does not simply magically appear in the investor's bank account.)

"

What was the total loss on Suessical? I find this information surprising as well given the span of years and the (perceived) extent of licensing for the property unless investors lost close to 100% of total investment and there were priority loans that sucked up initial licensing revenue returns. Saying this as someone who used to be that "overhead" on other shows who magically made money appear in the investor's bank account :)

HogansHero said: "raddersons said: "I feel like the most surprising thing about that initial article is that after 18 years of licensing, Suessical investorsstillhaven't made back their initial investment."

Revenue to investors from licensing is an extremely small slice of the pie. It is a percentage (typically 40%) of the AUTHOR'S ROYALTY not the box office. So let's say a show grosses (net) $100 million. The royalty for aproduction like Comet in Japan might be 6% +/-, which would be $6Million. 40% of that would be $2.4 Million before not-insignificant overhead. And of course amateur and school licensing is going to bring in a few thousand dollars each which means you need a huge number to make an impact and when they occur over a period of years you have overhead in each. (i.e. the money does not simply magically appear in the investor's bank account.)"

The more you know. I knew they didn't make a ton on licensing, but didn't' realize it was so low. When we a four show runs at my college years ago (of shows with similar licensing fees as Suessical), it cost around $3000. Using this math, the investors made a total of $72... split between all of the investors. Funny to think that some months when there's only one production up, they're getting checks for $1.00. Sure takes a lot of productions to make that money back.

Thanks for the tidbit of info, Hogan!

(hogan--correct if i'm not remembering correctly or add additional information)

the figures were are talking about are for licensed production (big and small) with smaller groups (usually those that the licensing company would have trouble auditing the box office figures) usually paying a flat amount for a set number of performances while larger professional groups pay a percentage that will vary on the popularity of the property (generally starting at 6% but going up to 10% (maybe even more).

for shows that are massively sucessful (say Hamilton, Rent, Phantom, Wicked) the show will either mount its own national and international productions (sometimes with a local partner) and get a much more generous part of the profits or license an official production (say to a truck and bus tour or an out of the way country and also get a much more substantial return.

Why has my post re: oak been deleted? Let’s not forget the past. Let’s not. This forum is ridiculous.

Updated On: 12/27/18 at 07:44 AM

DM, I quite like some of your comments[and you are a very busy lady who has a say in most threads] but is it really necessary to say the above--you are a legend already so no more points to be gained.

From someone whose comments are really rather useless and demoted to a stand by.

I agree re the Broadway production, what went down was nothing short of disgusting.

However the Japanese are the single most racist country on earth. They don't even attempt to hide it and nor do their laws and traditions. My brother lives in Japan and is married to a Japanese woman and they have 2 children. The level of descrimination their children have to go through on a daily basis to even get an education because they are concidered 'mixed' race would blow your mind. They are in operate classes to 'normal' Japanese children and are also taught a different version of the language because they are seen as 'lesser' Japanese.

Updated On: 12/31/18 at 11:15 AM