It’s hard to believe “Hamilton” could net more than its reported $500,000 per week.
However, according to a report in Bloomberg, ticket scalpers of the hit musical are pocketing $240,000 a week.
According to Economics professor at Susquehanna University, Matt Rousu, nearly $30,000 from every show goes to ticket resellers and not to production or the cast. There are eight shows a week.
The New York Post reported that executives of the Broadway show are thinking of doubling ticket prices, to ensure true profits are given to those who tirelessly work on the show.
The producers “are having discussion after discussion about what they should do about this,” said Broadway manager, Mitch Weiss. “They don’t want to charge people that much to see a show. But if someone is going to make money, it ought to be the people who work on it.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda and the entire cast of “Hamilton” are having an amazing run—they were just nominated for a record-breaking 16 Tony Awards. The musical uses hip-hop music to tell the life of Alexander Hamilton and has drawn thousands of viewers, including several appearances by President Obama.
Last month, producers and cast members reached a deal to share weekly profits among each other.
Lawyer Ronald Shechtman, who represented the actors, told CNN at the time, that the agreement will permit “cast members to share in the successes of Hamilton and receive a profit stream from all productions in New York and elsewhere.”
He went on to say: “this is a positive and constructive collaboration—the cast and producers shared a vision and reached a very satisfactory result.”
Yet, actors are still missing out on a lot of money as a result of ticket brokers on sites such as StubHub—a service for buyers and sellers of tickets for sporting, concert and theater events.
“Now that the actors have a stake in the profits, they are affected by this part of the market,” Shechtman said. “That’s money that’s not going to investors or the artists.”
In response, StubHub company spokeswoman Jessica Erskine said in an email, “As a marketplace, StubHub does not have the ability to regulate where and how sellers obtain the tickets they sell. Importantly, a large number of tickets offered by a seller does not indicate in any way where or how tickets were obtained.”
However, if “Hamilton” does decide to raise ticket prices, it'd only result in scalpers raising its own prices.
“The brokers will just raise their prices even higher,” said Weiss, the author of “The Business of Broadway.”
Despite the acclaimed praise of the Broadway show, Weiss doesn’t believe it'd be worth it to shell out thousands of dollars.
“Hamilton is spectacular, but it’s just a show. Four thousand dollars for a ticket? Give me a break,” he said.
