Making Benjamins on Hamilton

Who’s cashing in on Broadway’s hottest ticket in years? It’s not just creator Lin-Manuel Miranda as THR analyzes the revenue from sold-out shows, music and even books.

- Rebecca Sun

THE FINE PRINT ON THE investors’ agreement for The Public Theater’s spring 2015 musical warned that backers likely wouldn’t see a return on their money unless the show enjoyed a successful Broadway run — the chances of which were “impossible to project or predict.”

That disclaimer seems hilarious in hindsight. The show, Hamilton, is the hottest ticket in New York in years. Through April 3, the hip-hop musical about the “$10 founding father” has grossed $61.7 million at the box office since its Broadway previews began in July. Shows are sold out, with premium tickets selling for $549 each (and scalpers asking double and triple that price).

So who’s raking in all those 10 dollar bills? Hamilton grosses about $1.5 million weekly in ticket sales while it costs about 40 percent of that to pay salaries, rent the Richard Rodgers Theatre and cover other expenses. What’s left: $900,000 before royalties are paid, according to the show’s early financial statements obtained by THR. “Any producer on earth would be thrilled,” says Franklin Weinrib theater lawyer Elliot Brown, who has represented the producers of Billy Elliot