Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 3/17/19- Page 3

[Wick3]

Posted: 3/20/19 at 8:37am

DallasS said: "quizking101 said: "But I also think that the producers overestimated the amount of Boomers who want to spend $120+ to see a musical retrospective about her life when it’s entirely feasible to spend about the same (or sometimes less) to still see the real Cher on tour"

This is exactly the case I think right now with her big Mamma Mia Abba world tour going on.I would have loved to have seen The Cher Show...I love SJB..I came to NYC the first weekend in February, but as I was planning my trip in early January and buying show ticketsI saw that the real Cher was on tour only a couple hours from me at the end of January and upper level seats were $35.....i ofcourse decided to go see the real Cher and choose different shows for New York."

That's a very good point. I love SJB but for Cher fans with limited budgets I bet they'd much rather see the real Cher perform. 

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 3/20/19 at 11:14am

Cher Shows costs 1M a week? What? Is this King Kong??

[bdn223]

Posted: 3/20/19 at 12:11pm

MadsonMelo said: "Cher Shows costs 1M a week? What? Is this King Kong??"

 

If The Cher Show has a weekly nut of 1M a week someone needs to be investigated for fraud. It would be fiscally irresponsible for a show to have a nut above a million a week. As of now we only know of 2 shows that have had nuts at $1 million dollars. One was Spiderman, a spectacle driven musical, and Motown, which only cost so much due to Barry Gordy's obscene royalties triple dipping royalty deal, on top of the various royalty deals for each song, since they couldn't just do a lump sum royalty deal for all the music like Jersey Boys, or Beautiful. 

 

[ggersten]

Posted: 3/20/19 at 1:05pm

Well, since Cher didn't write the songs she has sung over the years (unlike Carole King), and given the long span of years, I'm sure the royalties situation is complicated and expensive.  Didn't royalties make Rock of Ages take basically its entire run to recoup?  When licensing became available, I looked into Rock of Ages, but, omg, the cost was, iirc, nearly twice what other musicals cost.  We ended up producing American Idiot instead.  

Not saying that a 1M nut is true - 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/20/19 at 8:07pm

The Cher Show is probably expensive to run simply because of the costumes. 400+ I think? Set isn't anything grand. But I think the show would benefit if it changed its performance schedule. The weeknight shows aren't selling while the matinees & weekends sell-out. Would the producers consider a Thursday matinee instead of a Thursday evening come the Fall? A Sunday evening instead of a Thursday evening? Wednesday & Sunday evening at 7pm, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday & Sunday matinees at 2pm, Friday & Saturday evenings at 8pm.

Updated On: 3/21/19 at 08:07 PM

[Lot666]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 8:58am

ACL2006 said: "Would the producers consider a Thursday matinee instead of a Thursday evening come the Fall? A Sunday evening instead of a Thursday evening? Tuesday, Wednesday & Sunday evening at 7pm, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday matinees at 2pm, Friday & Saturday evenings at 8pm."

I don't understand why more shows don't follow Phantom's lead and schedule their weekday matinees on days other than Wednesday. Why continually compete with everyone else, when you could make yourself the only option (or at least one of very few) on another day?

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 10:05am

"I don't understand why more shows don't follow Phantom's lead and schedule their weekday matinees on days other than Wednesday. Why continually compete with everyone else, when you could make yourself the only option (or at least one of very few) on another day?"

I agree and think it is a great idea but you would really have to market that fact because people just assume matinees are on Wednesday and Saturday.

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 10:27am

Changing a production's playing schedule usually has minimal positive impact...if people really want to see a show, they'll find a way to get there that works with their schedule.

A few summers ago, Phantom, Mamma Mia, and Cinderella partnered to try to make Thursday matinees a thing, but everyone except Phantom abandoned the idea. Senior centers and school groups plan around Weds matinees (tho some shows cancel the Weds matinees and add a Sunday evening if they don't have a matinee crowd). A show like Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen could sell out a run of entirely 11am and 9pm performances, but most shows aren't that strong.

I questioned the rationale around Once On This Island's crazy performance schedule (Mon-Tues night, Wed matinee, dark Thursday, 5-show weekend).

[Lot666]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 10:53am

SomethingPeculiar said: "Changing a production's playing schedule usually has minimal positive impact...if people really want to see a show, they'll find a way to get there that works with their schedule."

I respectfully disagree. I don't live in NY, but typically visit 1-3 times per year specifically to see shows. When selecting my travel dates, I try to pick days that will provide me with the most show slots. I know that Phantom's Thursday matinee means I can always see it without giving up another show, so they always get my money (literally every time I'm up there). If other shows had matinees on days other than Wednesday, I'd have more slots to fill and wouldn't have to skip some shows that I'm interested in. During my June 2019 trip, I'll be missing To Kill a Mockingbird, Pretty Woman, and The Cher Show; if any of them had a matinee on a day other than Wednesday, they'd be getting my money.

[OKBroadwayFan]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 11:27am

My daughter and I also try to cram as many shows in our schedule.   We saw 7 shows this past weekend.  Thank you to Mean Girls for a Sunday evening and Hillary and Clinton for a Monday night performance.   We often come up late Thursday night and stay thru Sunday evening.   If only a few shows would have a Friday matinee, we could see one more show.  

I get the logistics and understand that we are not the norm.   :)

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 11:44am

Right, Lot666, but it's a mater of getting 1000-1500 people into the theatre on a different weekday. If a show's already doing well, there's no reason to make that switch. Data probably suggests that an added evening show (Sunday or Monday) will have a more lucrative impact than switching the weekday matinee day, but it's case-by-case. 

Phantom is a branded entertainment that appeals almost exclusively to tourists, so it can get away with an unusual performance schedule. I'll also point out that most people don't love Phantom as much as you do, going by your username and the number of times you've seen it.

[Kitsune]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 11:56am

OKBroadwayFan said: "My daughter and I also try to cram as many shows in our schedule. We saw 7 shows this past weekend. Thank you to Mean Girls for a Sunday evening and Hillary and Clinton for a Monday night performance. We often come up late Thursday night and stay thru Sunday evening. If only a few shows would have a Friday matinee, we could see one more show.

I get the logistics and understand that we are not the norm. :)"

I'm in the same boat - I'm from the west coast and always try to cram as many shows as I can into a long weekend. For that reason Sunday night shows are always a plus!

At the same time, as much as I'd like to think of myself as theater-savvy, for my last holiday weekend trip I had to do a lot of poking around to figure out what was playing on a Sunday. So as others have said, I'm sure a lot of tourists don't even think of it.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 2:19pm

Never underestimate the price gouging of royalties. I remember Hello Dolly had a weekly nut of over 800k bc Jerry Hermann charges an arm and a leg for royalties.

[n2nbaby]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 2:34pm

As far as Thursday matinees go, one show opening soon does in fact have them: Moulin Rouge!

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 2:40pm

poisonivy2 said: "Never underestimate the price gouging of royalties. I remember Hello Dolly had a weekly nut of over 800k bc Jerry Hermann charges an arm and a leg for royalties."

Hello Dolly had a high weekly nut because Bette Midler was reportedly making $150K a week + a percentage of the box office and merch (and probably got a bump after winning the Tony, and another bump for her return engagement). And when the star's making big bucks, the authors, director, co-stars, and other key personnel are going to clean up, too. Plus... Big cast, big title, big orchestra, big design, big crew, big advertising, big production, big $$$$.

Updated On: 3/21/19 at 02:40 PM

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 3/21/19 at 2:45pm

Kitsune said: "At the same time, as much as I'd like to think of myself as theater-savvy, for my last holiday weekend trip I had to do a lot of poking around to figure out what was playing on a Sunday. So as others have said, I'm sure a lot of tourists don't even think of it."

I find Playbill’s weekly list of Broadway schedules quite helpful in planning trips. Of course, the limitations are that the schedule is only valid for that week and it doesn’t include off-Broadway, but it’s a good starting off point:

http://www.playbill.com/article/weekly-schedule-of-current-broadway-shows-com-142774