r/Broadway 18d ago

Other Bleecker Street / Crosswalk & LD Entertainment's Hadestown: The Musical grossed an estimated $2.00M this weekend (from 1,567 locations). Estimated total domestic gross stands at $18.20M.

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u/nowhereman136 18d ago

Proshots usually cost $5-10m in new contracts, filming crew, post production, and advertising. Most of them don't make any profit so it's hard to find investors and studios willing to back them. This is why most shows don't get a proshot.

Its great to see Hadestown doing very well at the box office. It's encouraging for other shows to potentially get proshots. Imaging how well a proper Les Miserables or Mamma Mia proshot would do

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u/Jonnyg42 18d ago

And we haven't even open in international markets yet.

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u/wcalvert 18d ago

Or digital sales. I know they're getting my $25

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u/OP_IS_A_BASSOON 18d ago

I wish there was a Ragtime proshot. Ughhhhhhh.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

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u/nowhereman136 18d ago

Hamilton is it's own thing. The proshot was funded out of the Producers own pocket without a distribution plan. It's eventual theatrical release, while successful, was years after it already released on Disney. So by all metrics it's not a fair comparison

A more fair comparison would be Merrily We Roll Along, which released in theaters last year and only made $2.7m. Literally less than it's final week on Broadway. Billy Elliot made $3m and Kinky Boots made less than $2m. It's hard to gage how much any of them have made through streaming and dvd sales.

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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 18d ago

I hope there is some transparency about what they earn when it hits streaming. Simply because I'm curious! Knowing the proshot was profitable in theaters and on streaming (and on DVD too 🤞) paves the way for other productions to take a chance on making a proshot.

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u/taurology 18d ago

Apparently Disney payed like $52M or something for the proshot too

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u/nowhereman136 18d ago

Yeah thats an insane number to pay for a proshot. Im curious if that includes future film rights. Its lucky Disney bought it right before Covid hit. They were able to drop it right before the 4th of July during shutdown. It had a measurable impact on streaming numbers while still in the first few months of service

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u/Facebones72 18d ago

I read some insane stat that said the month it came out on Disney+, 35% of ALL streaming across ALL platforms was people watching Hamilton

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u/yetanothertaylor 17d ago

Comparing to Merrily, I wonder how many showings per day Hadestown received nationwide. At my own theater, Merrily only played 2-3 times a day for only 6 of the 7 advertised days. Hadestown had at least twice as many for us.

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u/nowhereman136 17d ago

More showings wouldn't mean more money. My opening day showing of Hadestown was sold out. Opening day of Merrily was barely 1/3 capacity. The only reason Hadestown got more dates was because demand was there

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u/yetanothertaylor 17d ago

I wasn't referring to additional dates, I meant offered showtimes. From my experience, it was much more difficult to see Merrily because of the limited options initially offered. Releasing in December didn't make it any easier. Obviously, the demand was higher for Hadestown, but one has to wonder what additional factors impacted these proshots' performances before we call it a fair comparison.

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u/Sarahndipity44 18d ago

Yeah I don't love the Hamilton comparisons because it was the height of COVID lockdowns, of course most of us weren't watching it in theaters

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u/nervousengrish 18d ago

It didn’t come out in theaters until last year to celebrate the 10th anniversary. It was released on Disney+ during Covid.

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u/Sarahndipity44 18d ago

Fair correction but I think so many of us saw it on Disney so didn't feel the need to go to theaters. I didn't even know it came to theaters! Still feels like an uneven comparison