Big Bucks--Music to the Ears of the Backers

Are scalpers the only people making fortunes on “Phantom of the Opera” tickets?

Not exactly. Every sell-out week at the Ahmanson Theatre, where the show opens May 31, will mean $170,000 more in profits for producers Cameron Mackintosh and the Really Useful Theatre Company. Mackintosh is the 42-year-old British producer who already helped turn both “Cats” and “Les Miserables” into musical gold mines.

Los Angeles is but one outpost of the Mackintosh empire. In just two years, “Les Miserables’ ” four U.S. companies have already returned $18.5-million profit on receipts of $140 million; according to general manager Alan Wasser, that profit number goes up $600,000 every week. The production now playing the Shubert Theater here not only paid back its $4.5 million investment in 22 weeks but already has made an additional $2.2 million in profits.

Given the substantially higher production costs of “Phantom” in Los Angeles, its pay-back will take a while longer.

“Phantom’s” Broadway production was expensive enough at $8 million, but the Ahmanson production came in $500,000 higher. Wasser pegs the additional costs on such things as inflation and the price of flying in and housing the staging experts who duplicated the Broadway set, costumes and such.

But not to worry: The 2,045-seat Ahmanson will rake in a lot more money than Broadway’s 1,652-seat Majestic Theatre. While break-even costs in both cities run about $400,000 a week, sell-out grosses of $558,000 a week at the Majestic are considerably less than the Ahmanson’s $694,855. So instead of taking 60 weeks to recoup its investment as it did on Broadway, the Los Angeles production is expected to recoup its money in 40 to 45 weeks.

By that time “Phantom” companies will be traversing the globe much as “Les Miserables” companies have. Already playing in Vienna and Tokyo (besides New York and London), “Phantom” is set to open in Toronto this fall, then in Stockholm either later this year or early next year. A traveling U.S. company is expected to open next year as well.

With a $15-million Los Angeles advance at press time, “Phantom” has already set new local records, toppling former record-holder “Les Miserables” ($8 million). And if New York is any example, that number should keep growing; according to Wasser, the Broadway advance went from $19 million the day the show opened in January, 1988, to $22 million today.

The Ahmanson may only be selling 28 weeks worth of tickets right now, but Mackintosh similarly kept extending the sales for “Les Miserables” here. Or as Wasser puts it: “We haven’t determined yet how long the show will play in Los Angeles.”