Cirque du Soleil Working to Revamp “Paramour”

In the week ending August 28, 2016, the first Cirque du Soleil show made expressly for Broadway brought in only 47.45% of its gross potential. Paramour, which has brought in an average of 63.27% of its gross potential since it began previews on April 17, 2016, is struggling to find its audience.

It doesn’t help that it’s playing in the gigantic Lyric Theatre, where even Spiderman couldn’t find a way to make profits. Still, the producers and creative team have finally acknowledged that they need more than good faith to turn around the box office performance of this show.

Highly Competitive Climate To Maximize Revenue

Therefore, this past week, the show only played 5 performances, taking off three for creative reconstruction. It did not play a show on August 22, 24 or 25, 2016. Furthermore, a fourth day off took place this present week on August 31, 2016. In such a highly competitive climate, it is a big decision to play less than a full performance week during the struggle to maximize revenue.

With a week of just five performances, the weekly gross this past week was just $553,423, which is a decrease of $383,339 from the week before of eight performances. Still, this decrease is accounted for by more than fewer performances, as the percentage reached of gross potential also decreased by 4.44%. It is difficult to imagine how a hiatus of four performances will really allow the show to find not only a new creative approach, but a new reach with audiences, but the producers are giving it a try.

Shows Gain Steam in Final Weeks

This past week, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time brought in a gross of $531,908, which is an increase of $61,505 from the week before. This also represents the highest increase of any show this past week from the week before. Although that is just 62.0% of the show’s gross potential, it still represents an increase in interest as the Tony Award-winning play approaches its final performances.

The show has announced its closing date of September 4, 2016, which makes this past week its penultimate week. While the show has performed very well and will have run for 799 performances (on top of 23 preview performances) by the time it closes, it is still very difficult for the play to enter profits in such a competitive landscape.

"An American In Paris" Closing Soon

The second biggest increase in ticket sales this past week was seen by An American in Paris, another Tony darling that has announced its closing in the near future. This past week, An American in Paris brought in $695,947, which is an increase of $58,219 from the week before.

While the show still has a month to go before its closing date of October 9, 2016, it is still becoming apparent to ticketbuyers that there is limited time left to catch performances of this musical, which once was all the buzz on Broadway, before Fun Home swept the Tony Award for Best Musical away.