Profitability of Filming Bway Shows

[zainmax]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 1:14am

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2017/01/11/allegiance-screening-sets-box-office-record-but-fails-to-recoup-cost/#5894a4e77d21

It looks like both Allegiance and Memphis lost money. Why do you think that is?
 

Updated On: 1/12/17 at 01:14 AM

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 1:18am

Maybe because some might feel the whole point of seeing live theater is to, you know, see it live.

[zainmax]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 1:55am

I think that the issue lies more in marketing. No one knows about the events. It's not advertised like a blockbuster movie.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 5:48am

Movies don't become blockbusters soley because of advertising. These films don't have the budget to advertise....additionally, traditional movie houses aren't willing to take the financial risk. 

There are lots of people that just don't like musicals and aren't interested. 

[phantom39]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 6:55am

The unfortunate thing about this is really the huge cost of filming ($2.5M) that is mainly due to all the contracts you have to negotiate. If filming had a 1M cost most bway-to-screen could recoup. Producers should have a filming opportunity section in all contracts before people sign up on board, a move which could potentially make this a profitable option for everyone involved. It is something that works wonderfully in other places of the world and should finally be brought here as well.

Updated On: 1/12/17 at 06:55 AM

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 8:40am

zainmax, did you really need to create a new username again to share your articles here?

Also-- producers of theater don't go into this business for profit. Nor do they choose to film their shows in the hopes of profit. That would simply be a fool's errand.

[haterobics]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 8:45am

But there is still the encore showing, the DVD/Blu-Ray release, BroadwayHD... it's not like the one night showing was the only hope at recouping costs.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 9:08am

neonlightsxo said: "Also-- producers of theater don't go into this business for profit. Nor do they choose to film their shows in the hopes of profit. That would simply be a fool's errand."

This is all that needs to be said. Re costs, there are many others that are being ignored above. And re advertising... Even a meager movie-style ad campaign would more than double the amount that needs to be earned to break even. Not to mention that no amount of advertising is going to get many people to come watch a one-off that by design is a second-rate experience. 

 

[Rainah]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 9:43am

because they screened it for one night only with almost no advertising. goodness. No movies would make money if they only screened it once.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 11:43am

the silliness of this "reporting" is that it suggests, until one digs a bit deeper than the headline, that the film was on the way to recoupment when in fact it was not anywhere near recouping. A more apt headline would be that filmed shows in this model are engineered to be flops, and are big ones. In point of fact, the Allegiance film was no more successful than the stage show was. This article is the equivalent of reporting that I just ran my first marathon,when I stopped after 6 miles. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/12/17 at 11:45am

He point about hem being screened only once is the answer to the question. Until they fix that, they're just asking to lose money. 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 12:22am

I would have gladly gone to see ALLEGIANCE if they offered more than that one showing. But I was out of town so I lost my chance to view and give them my monies.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 1:32am

Mr. Nowack said: "I would have gladly gone to see ALLEGIANCE if they offered more than that one showing. But I was out of town so I lost my chance to view and give them my monies.

 

"

 

Alleigiance has has an encore date. February 19th.

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 4:33am

Ah! Thanks for the heads up, I will definitely be going then.

[jwsel]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 3:21pm

It's hard to know what the final figures for Allegiance will be.  I wouldn't be surprised to see the DVD becomes a staple for schools to show as a companion to teaching about World War II.

Also, before declaring filmed productions a failure, it would really make sense to see what the Met Opera and National Theatre broadcasts earn.  Those benefit from an established email list that alerts people to shows.  A one-off production may struggle to get out the word of a broadcast, but every Met and National Theatre production I've seen in a movie theater has been pretty full.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 4:02pm

did someone say DVD?

also, NT and the Met vis a vis Broadway are apples and oranges. Completely different contractual landscape, not to mention that they are non-profits. The truth is, Allegiance should have been as well. 

[Fan123]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 4:44pm

It was interesting to hear anecdotally, via this board, that the She Loves Me cinema screening audiences were quite small, despite that having been a much more acclaimed production. The livestream option might have had an effect there though (and that strategy might be working out better financially overall).
I'm guessing that there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem in terms of raising interest about these screenings. An average, not-rich, time-poor person who doesn't live within easy distance of New York, has little reason to keep up with Broadway happenings and get interested in new productions he/she assumes he/she will never get to see (or, not until a possibly-mediocre tour many years into the future or whatever). (We happy few long-distance fans are the exception.) So he/she is not likely to feel any spark of recognition or excitement upon first hearing that some Broadway show called 'Allegiance' is getting cinema screenings. If wider distribution of Broadway shows became much more frequent and widespread (in terms of more productions getting recorded), then more of the general public might gradually start to think it worth their while to cultivate an interest in current Broadway productions, so there would be a larger pre-existing market for these screenings. But, that would first require heaps of shows to endure less-than-profitable recordings and screenings in order to establish the screenings as a common occurrence. Not likely. There's also the fact that a lot of the well-known shows, are well-known because there's already a decent movie adaptation available.
I also remember hearing an interview with a cast recording company executive (possibly Kurt Deutsch?) who said that the profitability of cast recordings comes over a longer stretch of time these days, as new people here and there discover the show via a local production and seek out the original cast recording many years after it was released. There may have been some spin there, but he might have a point. Maybe a long-term model (eg, BroadwayHD or DVD releases) is generally going to work better than trying to drum up awareness 'out of nowhere' for a one-off or two-off cinema screening.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 5:56pm

@fan, those are all reasonable musings. I'll just note 2 things: first, that with every broader exposure comes a price tag, generally a heavy one, and second, that the people who are usually touting these things are not the stakeholders but the people who get paid even though they fail. I'd love to have an example of a cast recording that became profitable based on later discovery. I won't hold my breath.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 7:06pm

I can't remember if I read this somewhere, but I'd be willing to bet THE LAST FIVE YEARS is an example  of a cast recording that made a profit years after the original run (or will be, if it has not made a profit yet). 

[zainmax]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 7:09pm

Yero my Hero said: "I can't remember if I read this somewhere, but I'd be willing to bet THE LAST FIVE YEARS is an example  of a cast recording that made a profit years after the original run (or will be, if it has not made a profit yet). 

 

"

I was also thinking of L5Y. But, I imagine that it was also popular when it was released, because a lot of people loved the original production before amateur and stock licensing.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/13/17 at 7:19pm

The original production had such a short run off-Broadway shortly after 9/11. Almost everyone I know discovered the cast recording and fell in love with the show later. You don't need stock and amateur licenses to create interest in a closed show.   It just spread among theater people. "I just discovered this little show, you have to hear it!" and so on. 

[broadwayindie]

Posted: 1/14/17 at 2:17pm

Does anyone know how Shrek did? It was filmed and then distributed through Netflix thereafter. I know it flopped on Broadway, but I'm curious if the Netflix route aids in recroupment. I'm guessing probably not as there weren't other shows that had the same trajectory, but does anyone have better insight?

[zainmax]

Posted: 1/14/17 at 4:24pm

I'm sure that Netflix helps, and some of the BroadwayWorldwide shows are available on BroadwayHD now. But, I do not think that Shrek was profitable (either the show or the recording).

[HogansHero]

Posted: 1/14/17 at 6:54pm

if you look at the available metrics. there is no way this has even remotely recouped. And I wouldn't put much stock in it as a harbinger-not that many flop musicals based on a franchise with major studio backing that don't have Disney behind them, and it seems Disney understands the economics here better than DW did, although it's worth mentioning that the bucks that were dropped on this are a drop in the bucket to them.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 1/15/17 at 12:42am

From a producer's standpoint, I'd say these recorded versions make sense to get the word of mouth out. I know folks from my local high school who didn't know anything about She Loves Me checked it out when it was on screen and are already working on getting a license for a community theater production. A show like Allegiance could be targeting that market too - it has the potential (if it does marginally okay) to bring in licensing fee from local productions.