Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 6/26/16

[Wick3]

JBroadway said: "Why did Hamilton's Potential Gross go up? "

For the longest time the potential gross was stable at $1,334,960.  

The week after the Tonys, it increased to $1,655,384.

Then this past week it increased again to $1,943,120.

To my understanding the potential gross is based on (# of seats in the theater available for sale that week) x (average ticket price set by the theater for that week) or something similar to that calculation. In the gross tables, Richard Rodgers officially has 10,568 seats available for sale each week. Yet, it always sells over 10,750 seats each week (I guess that's due to SRO?)

I'm guessing after all those Tony award wins, Richard Rodgers officially raised the prices of their premium, orchestra, mezz, rear mezz tickets, thus increasing the potential gross? I don't work in finance but that would be my guess. I'm not understanding why it increased yet again this week, after an increase last week (unless the ticket prices rose again? Doubt it.)

 

 

 

[denali.fire]

Ticket prices just
Rise Up

 

[ACL2006]

DAMN, Color Purple!! I knew most of their shows were sold-out last week, but that's a very nice jump & a big welcome back for Erivo.

[HogansHero]

Wick3 said: "To my understanding the potential gross is based on (# of seats in the theater available for sale that week) x (average ticket price set by the theater for that week) or something similar to that calculation."

It's actually the sum of the actual base price of each seat, not an average. Otherwise you basically have it down. 

[ChiTheaterFan]

I remember that Hamilton's ticket block ended at the Tonys until they released a new block. That would mean this week corresponded to the first week when that new block went on sale. Which I believe was associated with a price increase. It would make sense to see the increases in weeks that marked a new block of tickets and corresponding price increase. Right?

Are the premium prices included in potential gross?

[ChiTheaterFan]

Sorry I lied. The Tonys were two weeks ago weren't they?  Time flies. So basically I have nothing useful to add. :)

[_IrisTInkerbell]

Obviously this week's Bright Star grosses weren't "real", I know that. There is no reason to always assume people are stupid around here. It's seriously getting on my nerves that I basically have to walk on egg shells with everything I say, because someone will come and twist it and say I'm stupid, dumb, delusional or whatever. It's absolutely unnecessary.

But they were on an upwards trend before they announced closing. They played their two highest grossing weeks in the 2 weeks prior to posting the closing notice. So yes, I do think word of mouth was catching on, unfortunately too slowly.

[Liza's Headband]

_IrisTInkerbell said: "Obviously this week's Bright Star grosses weren't "real", I know that. There is no reason to always assume people are stupid around here. It's seriously getting on my nerves that I basically have to walk on egg shells with everything I say, because someone will come and twist it and say I'm stupid, dumb, delusional or whatever. It's absolutely unnecessary.

But they were on an upwards trend before they announced closing. They played their two highest grossing weeks in the 2 weeks prior to posting the closing notice. So yes, I do think word of mouth was catching on, unfortunately too slowly.

 

"

 

Right. I think we all understood what you're saying. We just disagree with your analysis. If you're not willing to have an opinion or analysis critiqued by others, many of whom do this for a living, I guess you shouldn't post on a public message board. 

[qolbinau]

Who knows how Bright Star would have done if they kept holding on (probably not well enough or they wouldn't have decided to close), but the show's grosses have somewhat been on an upwards trajectory and the last week was a nice send off. This doesn't happen with all flops. For example, see: The Visit, Scandalous, Leap of Faith. At least Bright Star seemed to have some fans. Unfortunately, the ridiculous cost of mounting a Broadway show just make it too challenging. The only way for shows to make a profit seems to be to sell out for close to a year or more! Very challenging. 

[Wick3]

HogansHero said: "Wick3 said: "To my understanding the potential gross is based on (# of seats in the theater available for sale that week) x (average ticket price set by the theater for that week) or something similar to that calculation."

It's actually the sum of the actual base price of each seat, not an average. Otherwise you basically have it down. "

Ahhh got it! Thanks!!! I recently started looking at the Broadway grosses and was always intrigued by this data.

Since the box office can obviously change the base price of each seat, can they also change the number of premium seats each week? My guess is Hamilton increased the number of premium seats on week ending 6/26 compared to the week before, thus increasing the potential gross. 

 

[GreasedLightning]

_IrisTInkerbell said: "Obviously this week's Bright Star grosses weren't "real", I know that. There is no reason to always assume people are stupid around here. It's seriously getting on my nerves that I basically have to walk on egg shells with everything I say, because someone will come and twist it and say I'm stupid, dumb, delusional or whatever. It's absolutely unnecessary.

But they were on an upwards trend before they announced closing. They played their two highest grossing weeks in the 2 weeks prior to posting the closing notice. So yes, I do think word of mouth was catching on, unfortunately too slowly.

 

"

...Their two highest grossing weeks came AFTER their closing notice, though. 

[HogansHero]

@wick, the producer (not the box office which just does as they're told ) can change prices whenever they want for any seat. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't obviously. Also note that the top price shown is actual, based on what was sold for a given week. Because most Hamilton tickets were sold a long time ago they may not show a top price as high as the top price posted at the box office etc

[Wick3]

HogansHero said: "@wick, the producer (not the box office which just does as they're told ) can change prices whenever they want for any seat. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't obviously. Also note that the top price shown is actual, based on what was sold for a given week. Because most Hamilton tickets were sold a long time ago they may not show a top price as high as the top price posted at the box office etc"

 

Got it thx! Learned a lot from this thread this week.