kport wrote:Bridget40 wrote:kport wrote:So..what next? Will it come back to the West End or, like North America (and Mexico), become a series of regional productions that allow every theatre the possibility of realizing this great story their own way?
I think it will return to the West End! If the film version of the musical gets made, as has been suggested by Stephen Daldry, and said film does well........ I have no doubt it will return!
One hopes.....but on the West End, the pocketbook reigns. It has not returned to Broadway, not because it was not loved, but because it was too expensive to maintain.
The Society of London Theatres (
http://www.solt.uk.org) represents the producers, theatre owners and managers of the ... theatres in central London. Watch out for their Press Room and for the SOLT Box Office Figures for 2014 and 2015. The seat capacity utilization averages at about 73% and average ticket prices are about 43 GBP.
We know of about 5.4 million attenders of BETM in about 11 years. In average, every year BETM attracted 490,909 attenders with a seat capacity utilization of 76%, based on a seat capacity of 1,550 with 8 performances per each week, paying 21,109,087 GBP p.a. without merchandizing.
Now up to the question, what you can earn with musicals.
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk is your friend. Look for "Find company information" and "Start now". I searched for Billy London Ltd., their "Filing history" and full accounts. Billy London Ltd. took advantage of the "Related Party Disclosures"-exemption from disclosing transactions with other members of the group, which is why their financial statements are somewhat pointless. I've read before that Billy London Ltd. provide the payroll for the musical staff. There is no hint in the statements for that. The exemption does also apply to "B.E. Musical Limited". Both companies are subsidiaries of Working Title Theatre Productions Limited, which report a balance sheet total of roughly 900 k GBP, but no turnover or profit. They are subsidiary of Working Title Films Limited, who report an annual turnover of 16.3 million GBP, but only 1.7 million GBP turnover have been generated in the UK. Well, somewhere in the consolidated statements of NBCUniversal or Comcast you might find the proceeds of BETM.
Before it gets boring, we have the other side: Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Limited. The Group of Companies's accounts tell what you can earn in the West-End. A turnover of 44.1 million GBP between April 2014 and March 2015 made up for a profit after taxes of 11.2 million GBP. Not that bad. The balance sheets show an impudently high liquid ratio of 1,3. I have never seen such a high liquid ratio before. Cameron's company can easily pay all their short term liabilities out of the petty cash. And that is the fact after the company had paid 26.5 million GBP for the VPT in cash!!
In fact, the reported turnover is not the whole truth. Delfont Mackintosh posess the Gielgut (cap. 986), Noel Coward (872), Novello (1,105), Prince Edward (1,618), Prince of Wales (1,160), Queens (1,074) and Wyndham Theatre (759) apart from the VPT (1,550), which makes up for a total capacity of about 9,100 seat. Based on the London average seat capacity utilization and the average ticket prices, this should easily make up for gross sales of 119 million GBP p.a.
I am pretty much in doubt that the production of BETM is too expensive to maintain. Comcast/NBC/Working Title and Delfont could easily have stopped it in the past, if money had been burned. They have a cash cow at hand, one of the large productions at the West-End beside Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King. This gives me hope that it will return one day in the future.