“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” is closing in January. I told you twice. On August 22nd http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/08/22/broadway-spider-man-has-big-drop-from-last-week-while-producers-plan-marvel-spectacle and on October 21st, http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/10/21/broadway-spider-man-most-expensive-musical-ever-is-now-officially-struggling that the show was in trouble.
The most expensive musical leaves Broadway with a river of red ink. It also closes just three years and two months after it “opened” in November 2010 for previews, played like a runaway train until the spring of 2011 when it shut down briefly. “Spider Man” re-started three weeks later in June 2011 and finally opened officially after producers ousted Julie Taymor, the show’s creator.
Taymor, no longer being traumatized by interfering “collaborators,” has just opened a raved about production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Brooklyn.
“Spider Man,” of course, was plagued by accidents, hospitalizations, and “scandals” galore when the complex machinery designed for flying through the theater by the actors malfunctioned frequently.
But what really malfunctioned was the box office. In August, as I wrote, the box office suddenly started to fall off precipitously. Producers stopped selling about 400 of the 1,900 seats in the Foxwoods Theater but that didn’t help. The show needed a $1 million per week take to function without trouble. But it’s averaging around $740K in receipts. Last week it was down nearly 4% from the prior week. The trend was down and not coming back.
It’s likely that another blockbuster show “King Kong” – fresh with scandals to be had, high ticket prices, and questionable arithmetic– will arrive from Australia in the spring at the Foxwoods. And the name of the theater will likely change too as a new sponsor will put its name on on the building. As they say in computer speak, “Clear history.”
