I've got the mouse on my mind.

I was looking at a bunch of different Broadway budgets recently and I wanted to compare the budgeted breakevens with what the market was currently bearing.

I wanted to see what shows were grossing over $700k, even in the tourist-free winter months, so I flipped open my Variety and here's what I found:

Broadway Grosses w/e 02/10/2008

Wicked                            $1,310,705
Jersey Boys                     $1,127,362
The Lion King                      $962,925
The Little Mermaid              $889,942
Mary Poppins                     $731,687

What's interesting about this? 

The mouse has 3 of the 5 shows above $700k. 

And this list looks very similar if you look at the week before.  And the week before that.  AND the week before that.

Leverage works.  So well, in fact, that it's a little scary.

You know what else is interesting? 

Of these five musical behemoths, only 2 got good reviews from the New York Times.

Comments

[OldBetty]

What is also interesting is that of those five shows, the audience goes into them knowing most of the scores. 4 out of the 5 of them. (sorry Wicked)

And how many more animated films does Disney have back in that Disney Vault? 46 Animated Movies, and 3 more coming by 2010. Dont forget the 177 live-action films under their belt. The disney-broaday well aint drying up anytime soon!

How long till we get The Might Ducks, The Musical?

[DaveBeef]

If you take away all reviews and knowledge what the Broadway productions would be like. The 3 Disney Shows have the Benefit of being

1. The #1 Grossing Animated Film of All Time
2. One of the Highest Grossing Home Video Releases of all time.
3. The #6 Movie Musical ever according to AFI.

So they got that goin' for them, which is nice.( Caddyshack the musical anyone?)

[Kevin McGowan]

Isn't there only one show on that list that had a positive NYTimes review (The Lion King)? I thought Wicked, Jersey Boys, and Mary Poppins were mixed, and Little Mermaid was negative.

While all 3 of Disney's shows are on that list, they are also 3 of the most expensive shows to keep running. So, they NEED high grosses to remain profitable. Jersey Boys, on the other hand, would clearly be the top show in NET income, since it has a much lower nut than the Disney shows or Wicked.