EXCLUSIVE: Tickets for Broadway’s Belle Époque hit have gone from pricey to pricier.
Moulin Rouge! grossed $2.1 million last week, little changed from the previous seven days. The adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s movie is the best-selling new musical since Hamilton, which usually sells over $3 million a week on Broadway, four years after opening.
I compared Moulin Rouge! individual ticket prices that the production cited in a memo sent to group sales agents this month with prices in a similar memo from November 2018. The show, set in a nightclub in 1899 Paris, generally got strong reviews when it opened on July 25 at the Al Hirschfeld. Tickets are now on sale through July 2020.
On Friday and Saturday nights, the middle of the mezzanine had topped out at $179. Now that section fetches as much as $229. A ticket in the last row upstairs originally cost $99. Now it’s $129. (All prices in this story exclude fees and tickets available for resale.)
The front of the orchestra and mezzanine continues to command a “premium” price of $399, although there appears to be additional seats at that level. With “dynamic pricing,” prices fluctuate according to demand, along with the number of seats that command top dollar.
Over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the front of the orchestra rises to as much as $449. Year-round, cabaret-style seats at tables adjacent to the stage go for $499.
That’s still considerably less than the $998 top Hamilton holiday price, or $849 for the best Hamilton seats on a Saturday night.
Moulin Rouge! was capitalized for as much as $28 million, according to the a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s on the high side for a musical (although not for producer Global Creatures, which raised about $35 million to mount the flop King Kong, which closed yesterday). Investors expect a production to charge what the market will bear, so they can be repaid as quickly as possible and eventually earn a profit. Tickets priced below-market present an opportunity for resellers.
Moulin Rouge! sometimes discounts for imminent performances. As of midday Friday, there was availability in the fourth-row of the mezzanine for that night’s performance for $279. The same seat on Friday typically sells for $399.
And there’s always a daily lottery for the right to buy tickets at $34 each.
A production spokeswoman declined to comment.
