Is Wicked doing okay?- Page 2

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 10:27am

Once grosses drop consistently below 5 or 6 hundred k a week, THEN you can worry.  It grossed 1.8 MILLION bucks last week - it's fine, and will be for quite some time.

[magictodo123]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 10:30am

AEA AGMA SM said: "magictodo123 said: "But I'm also curious about what it would take a show like Wicked, a show like Hamilton, The Lion King, Phantom of The Opera to close. Hmmm."

That's an easy one. It would take ticket sales consistently dropping to the point where it's no longer profitable for the show to remain open."

I know, I mean....like for Hamilton, tickets are booked through the date that they’re selling them up to. It doesn’t have any sign of slowing down. The Lion King can be claimed as so many people’s first Broadway show (actually I think all of these can). I know that haha, 

[David10086]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 10:59am

AEA AGMA SM said: "That's an easy one. It would take ticket sales consistently dropping to the point where it's no longer profitable for the show to remain open."

Is that what happened when the original run of CATS closed after 18 years? What was their ticket sales at the time which made them close? 

[green waver]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 11:10am

Mister Matt said: "Whatever the future portends for Wicked, the producers achieved their ultimate goal~IT OUTRAN AVENUE Q!! Without having to play Vegas!

The ultimate goal of every producer is to make money. Avenue Q's run is irrelevant to the producers of Wicked."

 I sincerely hope you realize that I was joking

[bdn223]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 11:31am

dramamama611 said: "Once grosses drop consistently below 5 or 6 hundred k a week, THEN you can worry. It grossed 1.8 MILLION bucks last week - it's fine, and will be for quite some time."

I know Wicked has been running for nearly 16 years at this point, but I thinks its running costs have to be at least $750K a week. Its a big musical, an even if the producers have their running costs down to a science in terms of efficiency, after such a long run, it still has had to deal with some inflation in costs. It has crazy ornate costumes that constantly have to be maintained, numerous wigs and make up prosthetics, add to that I am going to assume the unions have mandated raises in the past 16 years. Looking back and doing some math though based on its initial capitalization cost of $14 Million and taking 64 weeks to recoup that investment, its initial running costs can be calculated to be around $874K a week. It should be noted that using this number would mean that Wicked was bleeding money for the first 7 weeks of its run despite playing to an average capacity of 96% and an average 76% of potential gross. Therefore I would theorize this number is likely inflated and  its probably closer to $800K. Add to that it should be noted that Menzel, Chenoweth, and Grey were likely being significantly more then any of the current cast is today. I would speculate that Menzel's post Tony salary was likely the equivalent to what the current witches and wizard make now combined. If I had to guess based on being able to trim costs over time, and calculating its initial running costs, its current running costs are probably in the range of $750K-$800K. 

In terms of how crazy profitable Wicked is though, in its 834 weeks on the Boards, its only not been a member of the million dollar club for 14 weeks. Only 8 of those weeks being weeks where Wicked played a full 8 week schedule. The last time Wicked didn't make $1 million for a full week of performances was in March of 2004. The show is a work horse, an yes it seems to be transitioning truly transitioning out of being a SRO production, it has many years ahead of it. The fact that the show is able to make over $1.3M despite only playing to 82% capacity is truly mind boggling.