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What percentage of a shows takings goes to the cast and crew ?
Is there a common system where the cast get bonuses when a show has a full house ?

What is the average markup on a tub of ice-cream?

Can selling a lot of merchandise (and indeed ice-cream/pringles/booze) keep a low selling show open? For example if you have two shows running in the same theatre (at different times) that have the same underperforming box office income. Lets say The Full Monty (musical) is one and you know you are going to flog a tonne of booze to the audience would that influence the decision to keep the show open or closed against say closing Into the Woods which has an audience that doesn't buy booze.

I've always wondered if certain shows get a longer life than attendance would suggest owing to them being able to sell a lot more peripherals.

How many stomachs does a cow have?

How much does a West End show typically gross?

There is no such thing as a typical weekly gross for a west end show. That’s like asking is there a typical weekly sales taking for each shop on Oxford Street. The Lion King grosses £1m a week and Woman In Black £50,000. Women in Black still makes £8,000 a week profit. So its all relative.

A theatre owner can only ‘move’ a show if the show agrees or if the contract stipulates reasons why either party might have cause to leave.

Blood Brothers moved from the Albery to the Phoenix before ATG owned either. It did absolutely pay rent every week at the Phoenix but a smaller % than is usual. As a ‘thank you’ for moving when it didn’t want to. Many theatre contracts have the right to give a show 6 months notice to leave for no reason. This is something that rarely ever gets triggered but it did when ATG wanted BB to leave as they could make much more money with newer shows on more standard % and £ rent deals.

Jamie’s sales started to slow and they didn’t fancy taking all the responsibility of the venue costs and the show costs into the winter with all the potential covid issues and they got Jerusalem as a firm booking and guaranteed to sell out for 2022 and Magic goes wrong as a nice winter ‘filler’ with less risk to Nimax. Jamie may come back at a later date.

Not much. No one commercially wants it. A few subsidised theatres have enquired and a few independent directors have also. The original US producer kept suggesting he would do it. Which he never did. Almeida and Donmar both dabbled as of course did Katy L and others. But its never going to make money in UK so no one has pushed hard enough-shame

Not heard about a WYP thing with NF?

Daniel is right. However, every theatre in London wanted Hamilton and the producers wanted the VP. CM knew this as they are all mates and go back to RENT days…so CM (canny bugger) said only way you get the VP is if my team GM it and I take 25% of the capital…..the American’s like CM and his team especially and were focused only on the VP-where it sits beyond perfectly of course. So CM got what he wanted and the Producers didn’t mind too much as they could afford to share a little their enormous hit with CM as his share was limited to UK only where the show is never going to be as $$$ as it is in USA. A win-win.

Sorry. CM was never a ‘producer’ of KB.
ALW has never owned the Queens/Sondheim

Happy to answer questions

TLK does £1m a week most of the time. Very rarely goes below £900k. Big weeks can do £1.3m.
An Off Broadway show would need at least $300k a week gross just to cover costs. Theatre, union rates, advertising, fees etc. At least. A 90 seat off Broadway is different to a 499 seat off Broadway of course. Again, no real ‘normal’. But assume $300k as a fair minimum average in the 6 or 7 ‘main’ recognised Off Broadway. Just to stay open.
Phantom/LM you are very close. POTO would gross £325-400k. Quite variable based on good weeks and ‘bad’ weeks. LM 5-15% more per week during past 10 years. LM less variable. POTO used to do better per seat average ticket price. But in past 12 years LM has done that little bit more. Remember Gross does not mean income and certainly doesn’t mean profit. There is 20% VAT (thankfully not at the moment), and then at least 6-10% ticketing costs then royalties etc before you start paying the actual weekly ‘costs’.

I guess i am asking for trouble really. But there are many different types of ‘off Broadway’ of course. The main recognised ‘off Broadway’ houses have between 199 and 499 seats. However, technically off Broadway is 99-499 seats. So that’s a huge range. I should of perhaps been specific about what type of off Broadway I meant. Where commercial shows can actually (sometimes) make a profit.
Little Shop has a gross capacity at its current theatre of $426k per week. A huge number of their seats are priced at $175+ That’s not to say it’s playing to that number every week, but with JJ in the cast it has been doing very very well and may even recoup.
The little space that ST played in is by most people considered not a main space. Only 135 ‘seats’ for ST.and the actors were not on level 3 contracts-the typical off Broadway rates.
I guess…rightly or wrongly, I was referring to the main off Broadway houses that take shows like AQ and Jersey Boys, Wrong etc. as well

Hello. interesting point of view and question. I am not sure what businesses share a % of income or profit with the staff employed and paid to do their job within a tight-frankly very tight brief….
Writers, composers, lyricists, directors, producers do well if their creative work hits with the public etc…the actors, 99% of the time get paid and don’t benefit or lose if it doesn’t work but don’t also if a show does ok, but never recoups but still pays its salaries.
The ? Around who gets what between producer and theatre, should really be who gets what between investor, creatives, producer and theatre owner. It’s complicated as the % changes per show, per theatre owner and then shifts significantly in terms of % on the box office. But basically. I am afraid. Investment in theatre-across all shows each year loses. Producers earn a decent living by charging fees but only make big money if the show properly hits. 3 or 4 a year in London. 1 or 2 in NYC. Creatives make good money. But only the top 2-3%. Theatres never ever lose money. It’s almost impossible. Too many shows want to come into the venues and there are too many great ways the theatres make money even if the shows are just breaking even….have a think about anyone who ever sold their theatre for less than they paid for it….might not be like that forever…the venues are towards the very top of the values now..but there isn’t a producer in the world that wouldn’t rather be a theatre owner..hence how the market has shifted in past 20 years..
Been better to be a physical landlord than a tenant in every business or sector in the in person world for 3 decades. Might change now. Not sure.

I cant think of a single producer in the past 20 years who HASNT put some of his/her money into their show. Why a would anyone invest if the principle isnt prepared to..there are very few exceptions. For minimal amounts.
Those days are gone. Correctly.