Broadway and Beyond

Broadway Grosses week ending 12-26-2010 Blizzard adjusted

Last weeks Broadway grosses were higher by 4.5% than the week previous even with the blizzard.  Overall attendance was only up .3% from the previous week.  Clearly the blizzard was a deterrent for some people to attend shows.  That did not stop Wicked from breaking its own record for highest gross in one week.  The average ticket price for all of Broadway was up to $91.63 from $86.28 week earlier.  However, this number may change slightly as Spiderman's real gross is reported.  The current number does not include Spidey's refunds. The average revenue per seat on Broadway for the past week was $75.73.

Show Name	Gross	%Cap	Avg Paid Admission	Revenue Per Seat
WICKED	$2,153,110	100.00%	$148.78	$148.78
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE	$1,099,420	102.59%	$132.89	$136.34
THE LION KING	$1,823,766	97.91%	$138.85	$135.94
ELF	$1,572,836	91.57%	$134.02	$122.72
SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK	$944,138	100.00%	$122.30	$122.30
JERSEY BOYS	$1,156,942	92.28%	$127.61	$117.77
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,011,143	90.95%	$111.77	$101.65
THE ADDAMS FAMILY	$1,100,286	86.36%	$104.85	$90.54
FELA!	$614,835	93.15%	$91.55	$85.28
MAMMA MIA!	$866,804	87.58%	$94.38	$82.66
DRIVING MISS DAISY	$452,435	71.98%	$111.68	$80.39
MARY POPPINS	$1,149,159	89.74%	$89.08	$79.94
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$1,028,037	79.95%	$99.52	$79.57
THE PEE-WEE HERMAN SHOW	$535,387	71.60%	$101.25	$72.50
PROMISES, PROMISES	$977,274	72.25%	$96.78	$69.93
CHICAGO	$512,065	76.75%	$88.26	$67.73
MEMPHIS	$782,329	70.66%	$94.14	$66.52
WEST SIDE STORY	$871,951	73.29%	$87.63	$64.23
IN THE HEIGHTS	$685,832	77.78%	$82.01	$63.79
RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES ON BROADWAY	$706,360	67.48%	$90.36	$60.98
BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON	$501,179	84.41%	$72.06	$60.82
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC	$452,784	69.58%	$87.38	$60.79
DONNY & MARIE: A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS	$481,812	60.27%	$97.73	$58.90
ROCK OF AGES	$438,042	65.03%	$84.45	$54.92
TIME STANDS STILL	$117,962	73.45%	$74.42	$54.66
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES	$373,855	50.98%	$99.11	$50.53
NEXT TO NORMAL	$312,046	79.60%	$63.48	$50.53
AMERICAN IDIOT	$539,810	56.06%	$80.50	$45.12
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET	$370,872	51.48%	$84.77	$43.64
LOMBARDI	$228,582	59.15%	$61.15	$36.17
BRIEF ENCOUNTER	$244,500	61.33%	$56.83	$34.86
COLIN QUINN: LONG STORY SHORT	$155,816	46.34%	$71.61	$33.18
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST	$162,716	63.36%	$49.58	$31.41
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN	$241,849	48.40%	$64.39	$31.17
LA BETE	$184,011	40.84%	$63.91	$26.10
A FREE MAN OF COLOR	$143,850	43.62%	$39.52	$17.24

 

Audience picks for Top Ten Shows of 2010

The TheaterAdvisor.com list of Top Ten Shows for 2010 has just been released. 

 

 

Check it out at: TheaterAdvisor.com's Top Ten 2010

 

Statistics: Broadway Grosses for week of 12-13-2010 to 12-19-2010 and revenue differential

One may be the loneliest number that you'll ever know, but not when you are thinking about maximizing your revenue.

The grosses for Broadway week ending 12-19-2010 are in. This week I've added a column  showing the percent differential between Average Paid Admission and Revenue per Seat to illustrate how shows are succeeding with their pricing.  The ideal differential has a value of 1, where the APA and RPS are the same. A higher differential shows that a show is priced incorrectly as it reflects a low capacity. However, you may argue that the pricing is not the issue with the low capacity of a show as the show itself is not appealing to the largest number of Broadway theatergoers (tourists).  I disagree. When someone is online at the TKTS booth, they, most often, have not yet decided which show they plan to see and price is often a major factor in the decision they make. So pricing is important to those consumers. It would be interesting to see a show price itself at near its RPS average over several weeks and then put a large number of tickets onsale at the TKTS booth and see what the results were. As you can see from some of the grosses over the past few weeks, some shows would not hurt their bottom line were they to do so.

What do you think?

 

Show Name	Gross	% Cap	Avg Paid Admission	Revenue per Seat	Differential
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE	$645,015	102.56%	$136.48	$139.98	0.98
SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK	$1,036,133	98.92%	$90.45	$89.48	1.01
WICKED	$1,631,743	97.94%	$115.12	$112.75	1.02
ELF	$1,464,913	96.30%	$133.53	$128.59	1.04
JERSEY BOYS	$1,133,645	95.71%	$120.56	$115.40	1.04
THE LION KING	$1,571,953	94.61%	$123.84	$117.17	1.06
FELA!	$613,717	93.60%	$79.57	$74.48	1.07
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$978,780	88.75%	$97.01	$86.10	1.13
NEXT TO NORMAL	$308,859	85.75%	$58.32	$50.01	1.17
PROMISES, PROMISES	$1,117,422	83.46%	$95.79	$79.95	1.20
DRIVING MISS DAISY	$595,313	80.10%	$115.55	$92.55	1.25
THE PEE-WEE HERMAN SHOW	$637,669	80.07%	$94.36	$75.55	1.25
BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON	$419,303	79.62%	$63.91	$50.89	1.26
DONNY & MARIE: A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS	$1,047,740	78.06%	$117.20	$91.49	1.28
IN THE HEIGHTS	$608,332	77.23%	$73.26	$56.58	1.29
MARY POPPINS	$914,985	75.16%	$84.68	$63.65	1.33
MEMPHIS	$795,212	73.71%	$91.74	$67.62	1.36
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$761,245	73.31%	$80.37	$58.92	1.36
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC	$438,142	72.07%	$81.62	$58.83	1.39
RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES ON BROADWAY	$676,048	71.36%	$81.79	$58.36	1.40
THE ADDAMS FAMILY	$912,688	70.54%	$106.47	$75.11	1.42
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST	$71,928	69.90%	$34.76	$24.30	1.43
MAMMA MIA!	$713,888	68.40%	$87.09	$59.57	1.46
WEST SIDE STORY	$751,136	67.93%	$81.45	$55.33	1.47
ROCK OF AGES	$478,936	67.24%	$89.30	$60.05	1.49
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES	$453,873	61.75%	$86.92	$53.67	1.62
BRIEF ENCOUNTER	$278,911	60.60%	$57.41	$34.79	1.65
CHICAGO	$431,498	60.47%	$82.58	$49.94	1.65
LOMBARDI	$238,737	59.95%	$63.01	$37.77	1.67
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN	$269,357	54.73%	$63.42	$34.71	1.83
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET	$445,007	53.04%	$86.39	$45.82	1.89
TIME STANDS STILL	$325,677	51.52%	$73.24	$37.73	1.94
A FREE MAN OF COLOR	$214,439	50.97%	$50.42	$25.70	1.96
COLIN QUINN: LONG STORY SHORT	$147,620	48.53%	$64.77	$31.44	2.06
AMERICAN IDIOT	$489,532	47.36%	$75.60	$35.81	2.11
LA BETE	$232,383	42.45%	$67.95	$28.85	2.36

Broadway Grosses for Dec. 6-12, 2010 and Revenue per seat for The Phantom of the Opera

Broadway Grosses Dec. 6-12, 2010 sorted by Revenue per seat

The Broadway grosses are in for last week and are listed below, once again with the revenue per seat column being the source of the sorting of the list.

Show Name Gross TotalAttn %Cap Avg Paid Admission Revenue Per Seat THE MERCHANT OF VENICE $1,074,410 8,273 102.59% $129.87 $133.24 JERSEY BOYS $1,249,427 9,638 98.11% $129.64 $127.18 THE LION KING $1,575,589 13,122 97.81% $120.07 $117.44 ELF $1,302,310 10,816 94.94% $120.41 $114.32 DRIVING MISS DAISY $732,896 6,003 93.33% $122.09 $113.95 WICKED $1,645,313 14,211 98.20% $115.78 $113.69 DONNY & MARIE: A BROADWAY CHRISTMAS $881,925 7,207 88.11% $122.37 $107.81 SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK $911,682 9,595 99.43% $95.02 $94.47 BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL $1,066,328 10,787 94.89% $98.85 $93.80 PROMISES, PROMISES $1,239,949 12,383 88.60% $100.13 $88.72 THE ADDAMS FAMILY $1,014,185 9,453 77.79% $107.29 $83.46 MEMPHIS $972,959 9,904 84.22% $98.24 $82.73 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC $519,928 5,721 76.81% $90.88 $69.81 THE PEE-WEE HERMAN SHOW $583,281 5,961 70.63% $97.85 $69.11 FELA! $567,267 7,270 88.23% $78.03 $68.84 MARY POPPINS $982,645 11,684 81.27% $84.10 $68.35 MAMMA MIA! $817,276 9,490 79.19% $86.12 $68.20 LA CAGE AUX FOLLES $562,152 6,215 73.50% $90.45 $66.48 THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS $454,251 6,996 97.17% $64.93 $63.09 MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET $611,869 6,729 69.29% $90.93 $63.00 ROCK OF AGES $502,042 5,433 68.12% $92.41 $62.94 THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $755,601 9,128 70.65% $82.78 $58.48 RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES ON BROADWAY $648,528 7,939 68.53% $81.69 $55.98 WEST SIDE STORY $757,353 9,582 70.58% $79.04 $55.79 CHICAGO $446,401 5,533 64.04% $80.68 $51.67 IN THE HEIGHTS $515,094 7,743 72.01% $66.52 $47.91 LOMBARDI $290,552 4,438 70.22% $65.47 $45.97 NEXT TO NORMAL $283,836 4,682 75.81% $60.62 $45.96 BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON $367,783 5,543 67.27% $66.35 $44.63 WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN $320,315 4,604 59.33% $69.57 $41.28 TIME STANDS STILL $339,551 4,248 49.21% $79.93 $39.34 BRIEF ENCOUNTER $300,383 4,835 60.32% $62.13 $37.47 AMERICAN IDIOT $482,459 7,087 51.84% $68.08 $35.29 A FREE MAN OF COLOR $278,172 4,859 58.23% $57.25 $33.34 THE PITMEN PAINTERS $172,345 3,839 73.83% $44.89 $33.14 COLIN QUINN: LONG STORY SHORT $153,081 2,294 48.85% $66.73 $32.60 LA BETE $253,079 3,770 46.80% $67.13 $31.41

You are probably wondering how could THE MERCHANT OF VENICE have a higher Revenue Per Seat than Average Paid Admission. As you may recall from last week's post about Broadway statistics, RPS is different from APA in that it is the amount of money made per seat available that week vs. the average amount collected per admission that week. It appears that the production of Merchant did two things last week to create such a high RPS. First, they sold more tickets than their capacity(standing room is not included in the seated capacity listings), since we are basing our calculations on capacity we derive I higher RPS than APA.  Second, they sold a large number of tickets above the top ticket price of $140. 

Overall Broadway shows are doing a good job of maximizing RPS as 10 shows had less than a 10% difference between their RPS and APA, granted they all had over 90% capacity.  It would be nice to be able to make a correlation to a shows success and the difference between RPS and APA however, it isn't that simple.  Some shows may have a lower differential due to high capacity but their pricing has been discounted to the point where they are not making much profit, if any at all.  Others may have a large differential and still be very profitable because they are selling enough tickets to gross above their costs.

A good example to explore the relationship between RPS and APA would be the Broadway show         THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA which had a 29% difference between their APA and RPS last week and grossed $755,601. The show has been playing for almost 23 years and has grossed almost $800,000,000. When they started their APA and RPS were the same as they were sold out immediately after opening for weeks on end. (There were no premium seat prices back then)  In 1988 they had an APA of just under $42, a decade later in January of 1998, their APA was about $54 and their RPS was $49 (ticket prices had risen).  A decade later, January 2008, their APA was $62 and their RPS $49. Last week their APA was $$82 and their RPS was $58 (ticket prices have risen once again). All the while they have maintained a steady RPS. Their APA for the entire run has been just over $56. They clearly know what number they need to hit to be profitable and they have figured out how to sell the house accordingly.  It is not good enough to be a well-known, long running show to be successful and profitable, it requires smart ticket pricing and sales strategies to maximize revenue and maintain profitability.

Audience Demographics-Statistics Highlights for the 2009-2010 Broadway season

The Broadway League published its annual report on The Demographics of the Broadway Audience.  Below are highlights and comments from the Executive Summary. Interesting and informative information for anyone interested in the theater business.

• 63% of the Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists.
• In line with previous decades, 66% of the audience was female.
• Average age of the Broadway theatergoer was older than previous seasons at 47.9 years.
• Caucasians bought 75% of tickets, Asians bought 6.1% (30% higher than the previous season) African-Americans bought 3.5% (higher than last season but still below the peak years of '05'08 when The Color Purple was on Broadway)
• 77% of theatergoers 25 or older had a college degree and 39$ had earned a graduate degree.
• Average reported annual household income was $200,700
• The average theatergoer attended 4.5 shows over 12 months. While only 6% of theatergoers attended 15 or more shows they accounted for 31% of all tickets (3.7 million admissions).
• Playgoers attended 7 shows during the past year while musicalgoers attended 5 shows.
• 34% of respondents bought their tickets on line.
• The most popular sources for theatre information were Broadway.com, The NY Times and word-of-mouth(WOM). 
• 69% of the purchasing decisions were made by women.
• For musicals, 46% of audience members cited WOM as the most influential factor in deciding to attend the show while 23% cited critics' reviews. Fo plays, 31% cited WOM and 32% cited critics' reviews.
• Advertising was cited as an influence in the purchase decision as well.
• 72% of the Broadway audience said that some kind of incentive(discounts, freebies, add-ons) would encourage them to attend shows more often.

To me the numbers are not very surprising or different from other years.  The biggest thing I noticed here is the last bullet point. An overwhelming number of our audience is willing to come back to Broadway if we can incentivize them in some way. With Broadway now feeling the pinch of the recession it is clear that the audience is looking for value in their purchasing decisions. Shows will not have to find ways to encourage ticket buying without eroding the pricing of tickets.

Ask me anything on VYou

I am trying out this new technology, so ask me anything you like and I will reply.

 

 

 

Broadway Grosses Nov. 29 - Dec. 5, 2010 and why Revenue per seat matters

I am back with Broadway Grosses. But this time I have something different to say inspired by Jim Mcarthy from Goldstar. You will note an extra column below titled 'Revenue per seat'. This week, the list is sorted in descending order from the RPS column. RPS is the amount of money generated by each available seat in the theater for the week. It is different from Avg Paid Admission, which on its own is an OK measure of success.  However when you look at the difference between APA and RPS you can see why some shows cannot survive on Broadway and others are profitable.  

Example: A new musical comes to Broadway and has a running cost of $625,000 per week (including minimum royalties.)  It is in a theater that has 1060 seats with a weekly capacity of 8500. What does the show need to make per seat to break even? $73.52 (Divide the weekly cost by the number of seats to derive this number)  So anything above that number would be profit for the production that week.  Let's say the show does 80% capacity one week (which would put it in the top 12 of this past week in % capacity) at an average ticket price of $90.  Seems like they would be making money that week right? Unfortunately the show would have a loss that week of $13,000.  So APA is not always a good way to measure your success on a weekly basis.  More important is to know what your RPS at various % levels is and find a way to make those numbers.

From this chart, which shows do you think are making money and which are losing?

Show Name	GrossGross	%Cap	Avg Paid Admission	Revenue per seat
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE	$1,085,310	102.50%	$131.30	$134.59
JERSEY BOYS	$1,237,955	95.42%	$132.06	$126.01
THE LION KING	$1,529,019	95.64%	$119.17	$113.97
DRIVING MISS DAISY	$699,239	88.77%	$122.46	$108.71
WICKED	$1,566,919	94.47%	$114.62	$108.27
ELF	$1,175,130	84.57%	$121.98	$103.15
SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK	$919,457	98.22%	$97.11	$95.38
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,037,838	91.78%	$99.47	$91.29
PROMISES, PROMISES	$1,154,614	81.12%	$101.84	$82.61
MEMPHIS	$936,362	83.55%	$95.29	$79.62
THE ADDAMS FAMILY	$937,133	69.40%	$111.11	$77.12
THE PEE-WEE HERMAN SHOW	$572,951	66.43%	$102.18	$67.89
MAMMA MIA!	$777,759	74.17%	$87.50	$64.90
MARY POPPINS	$911,483	74.87%	$84.68	$63.40
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC	$468,108	68.30%	$92.02	$62.85
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES	$530,382	67.86%	$92.43	$62.72
FELA!	$506,223	80.84%	$76.00	$61.43
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET	$582,367	65.16%	$92.03	$59.96
ROCK OF AGES	$476,229	64.09%	$93.16	$59.71
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$690,663	65.30%	$81.86	$53.46
CHICAGO	$457,936	65.38%	$81.06	$53.00
RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES ON BROADWAY	$598,381	60.05%	$86.02	$51.66
WEST SIDE STORY	$697,675	63.21%	$81.30	$51.39
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN	$390,465	65.21%	$77.17	$50.32
BRIEF ENCOUNTER	$378,764	76.46%	$61.80	$47.25
IN THE HEIGHTS	$496,380	67.22%	$68.68	$46.17
LOMBARDI	$273,956	66.74%	$64.95	$43.35
TIME STANDS STILL	$339,572	49.79%	$79.01	$39.34
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS	$282,465	77.79%	$50.43	$39.23
BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON	$315,796	58.80%	$65.18	$38.32
NEXT TO NORMAL	$234,199	67.26%	$56.38	$37.92
A FREE MAN OF COLOR	$261,283	51.97%	$60.26	$31.31
AMERICAN IDIOT	$424,812	43.31%	$71.73	$31.07
THE PITMEN PAINTERS	$154,367	65.08%	$45.62	$29.69
COLIN QUINN: LONG STORY SHORT	$128,644	47.15%	$58.10	$27.39
LA BETE	$216,038	40.38%	$66.41	$26.82