Here’s another one: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a two-part drama now in previews and opening April 22, cost about $68.5 million to bring to Broadway, including not only $35.5 million to capitalize the show — more than for any other nonmusical play in history — but also another $33 million to clear out and redo the theater.
6 comments:
I am a huge Harry Potter Fan so the idea of a harry potter play coming to gather is like a dream come true. Its basically two worlds combining just for me. Being from Florida I have been fortunate enough to experience the harry potter theme parks in orlando. I love them and even worked on some other the earlier theme park installments. I am a littler surprised that they spent sooo much, but at the same time Im not. I think they will recover with in the first few years on the name alone. But I’m more interested in the show its self. I am so sadden to hear from some colleges that the play write it self is not the best, but I really how the on stage version is a spectacle and makes up for the relaxed script. I am excited to see the tech specs and what all went it to making the show a magical one.
The headline was not shocking at all, but the level of detail this article went into was! As a person who is really interest in theatre finance, I thought this article was going to be very similar to those during Spiderman's creation, which were "It costs a lot...because it's Spiderman...duh?". To the contrary, I thought the article well explained how the show became so expensive, which I do not think is a shocker to the general public. What I did find shocking was the fact that such a large portion of that money was spent on redoing the theatre. Not to mention that the Lyric and Ambassador were in competition for Harry Potter's business. It was incredible to see that the Ambassador went through so many renovations just to be considered for the show, but sadly did not get chosen. I like the producer's description of how they really wanted to get the audience in the world from the moment they walked in the theatre without being a theme park; I appreciated their distinction between the two.
Harry Potter holds a distinction as a franchise that few other properties have: it has captured the collective conscious of an entire generation. Other than Star Wars which captured the minds of people in the late 1970s and 80s, no other franchise has been so popular with an entire generation. As such, it is not shocking that the continuation of Harry Potter on stage is going to have substantial production values. The creators want to make a substantial investment in this play to create a spectacle for young people that is well worth the price of admission. We should also consider that since this show takes place in a fantasy world, that it requires certain expendable special effects to make the world believable. Such effects are costly to use every night, and certainly contribute to the upkeep cost. However, I would be shocked if it did not make a substantial profit on this show given the popularity of the franchise with people of all ages, but specifically millennials.
The Harry Potter world is one that has engrossed millions for over 20 years and now to see this magical world brought to the stage is phenomenal. But apparently this magic came with a huge price tag to completely transform The Lyric an then to have an insanely detailed set. The photos in this article of the newly remodeled Lyric and set for this show are truly stunning though. The attention to detail not only making the design elements transport you into the magical world, but to have the actual world transport you even before the action starts on the stage is impeccable. They even moved the entrance of the theater so the experience starts even before you enter the door. But like Ms. Freidman, I don’t know if this price is justified. Yes, they were able to make something extremely cool and truly transport an audience, but theaters around the country at the regional level and Broadway tour houses and even other shows on Broadway manage to do this without the giant budget. I just think the need to completely transform the theater might be showing a weakness’ in the shows ability to captivate so it is relaying in the architecture around to really hook the audience from entrance so when the show actually starts they are already hyped and there is less pressure on the show to get the audience to that point.
Wow! As an avid Harry Potter fan, I can't deny the appeal of seeing my favorite childhood characters onstage. That said, MY GOD, what a money suck this franchise is turning out to be. I suppose I was a fool for thinking they would stop with 8 movies (for seven books! a dead giveaway to be sure!), as simply putting the brand name on something probably all but guarantees astronomical profits. Nonetheless, I am still floored by the insane budget for this show. What could have led it to get so high? I imagine they simply began with a massive budget pulled from the endless coffers of Harry Potter themed wealth that has been accumulated over the past two decades. Sheesh! I never thought I would say it, but when will this franchise finally find its' end? I just hope it doesn't end up completely perverting the original magi of the series in their unending search for profits.
This article is so interesting. First off I can not believe that this play is costing 68 million dollars. How do things cost that much. Once reading this article it was then made clear that a lot of the money was not spent on the actually play but on the theatre. They first had to get rid of the Criue show which cost some money. I do not believe they should have spent that much money on getting Crique to leave. The show was doing horrible in the box office and what have closed anyway. Another interesting price tag was how much it cost to redo the theatre. It seems that this theatre needs a lot of upkeep/ changes as the past shows all have had to redo the theatre which is not normal. Im excited to see how long this show runs and at what point do they start to recoup.
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