Broadway is back after an 18-month pandemic shutdown
Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferre breaks down the financial impact of Broadway's 18-month shutdown amid the pandemic.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: Well, the big lights on New York City's Broadway are firing back up today. Four of the most iconic shows are reopening tonight, 18 months after going dark due to the pandemic. And Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferre is here to give us an idea of what that reopening might look like and what it means for the Big Apple's economy. Ines.
INES FERRE: Yeah, Zack, and the four shows reopening are "Chicago," "Hamilton," "Lion King," and "Wicked." And the cost of Broadway having been shut down has been a big blow to the industry. Broadway lost some $35 million in gross revenue per week each week during that shutdown. And just to get an idea of how much money Broadway brings into the New York City economy, we have to really step back to the pre-pandemic levels because the contribution between 2018 and 2019 was more than $14 and 1/2 billion, $1.8 billion in ticket sales.
And we're not just talking about the ticket sales. We're also talking, of course, about ancillary spending. So it's not just the restaurants and the hotels. It's also the mom and pop shops, those shops that sell the "I Heart New York City" t-shirts. It's also about pretzel stands. It's also about travel, international travel.
And speaking of international travel, also, the tourist ancillary spending really varied by person by average. So from the suburbs, you had tourists spending an average of more than $230. Domestic tourists spent almost $2,000 each. And the international tourists spent more than 5-- $4,000 each on average. So, really, the international tourists are the ones that are expected to rebound last, to recover last when it comes to this Broadway reopen.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, so kind of like a trickling in when it comes to that recovery. Obviously, international travel still weighed down here a bit. But tickets have been on sale, kind of ahead of this big reopening and a lot of people have been looking forward to for months. So any idea about what those sales might be looking like or, once they get into the theater, what the social distancing measures inside might be like?
INES FERRE: Yeah, well, "Hamilton," for example, for tonight's show, they're sold out. And "Hamilton" has actually sold out for quite of the shows this month and next month, although some do have a handful of seats. So it's really interesting to think back when "Hamilton" was just such a popular show when Broadway was open, and you had to wait more than a year to even get in there.
As far as the protocols are concerned, the crew and the staff all have to be vaccinated. They go through tests-- and also, adult attendees. So the audience members have to show proof of vaccination, and they all have to wear masks as well.
But what's really interesting about Broadway is that it's so important for them to open at full capacity because social distancing is very difficult for Broadway theaters. Those seats are so small. They're jam packed in there. And Broadway productions are very expensive. Some of them don't make it that much-- don't make it for many years on Broadway because they're so expensive. So it was really important for them to come back at full capacity and to get the social distancing down as much as possible, given the tight space in those theaters.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, a lot of people are excited, though, to finally get back out there and watch some of these things. Of course, you can watch "Hamilton" on Disney Plus-- not the same, though. You want to be there in person. Same goes for "Lion King." Ines Ferre, though, giving us a solid preview there. Appreciate that.
And of course, a reminder-- we're going to be covering this later on in today's programming, "Broadway is Back." Going to be hosted by Alexis Christophorous at 1:00 PM Eastern time, live from Times Square in New York. Going to be exciting to see the people down there and the excitement growing ahead of those shows tonight.
