Hit Or Flop?

Was Superman profitable? Or did he let down his investors?

Almost two months ago, I set out on a quest to prove that "It's A Bird It's A Plane It's Superman©" was not the biggest flop on Broadway. It was inconceivable to me that the joyous, colorful, exciting show—featuring the wonderful Bob Holiday as Superman—could possibly have been a financial disaster. Did I succeed? Well, yes and no.

There are a fair number of articles floating around the web that incorrectly claim "It's A Bird It's A Plane It's Superman©" was capitalized at $600,000. Many of these articles reference a blog post by the inimitable Mark Evanier titled “Up, Up and Away!” As far as I can tell, the $600,000 figure (some places report $650,000) comes from a misreading of an article in the 01/11/1966 New York Herald Tribune that stated:

”Superman” has been privately financed at $400,000. Columbia Records is reported to have an investment of $250,000.

Why do I say this is a “misreading”? Because Hal Prince¹ himself lists the investment in the show at $400,000. So $250,000 came from Columbia Records and $150,000 from other investors. Who were these investors? No one today seems to know, except that it wasn’t Mr. Prince’s usuals. Mark Evanier muses that perhaps it was DC Comics.

We do know that these private investors were not Hal Prince's customary backers:

In a letter to his former backers, Mr. Prince informed them that he has no time to finance the project in the usual manner. “I don’t want you to think,” Mr. Prince added, “that we are bypassing our loyal investors. These are extraordinary circumstances. We’ll do the best we can to take care of you on opening night and avail you of our house seats. A little of the excitement will be gone, but so will the risk.”

On Broadway, what’s a hit and what’s a flop?
First, a show is capitalized; this is the $400,000 that was invested into "It's A Bird It's A Plane It's Superman©". This capitalization pays down payments to the creators, builds the sets, creates the costumes, markets the show, and pays the performers while rehearsing.

Eventually—hopefully—the show opens and ticket sales fund the running costs: salaries for everyone from the stage hands to the stars, theatre rental, costume maintenance, ongoing payments to the creators, and all other day-to-day costs ... like making Superman fly!

What about the investors? They get paid back if, and only if, weekly ticket sales outpace weekly expenses. If the show runs long enough, the investors make a profit and the show is considered a hit. If it closes before a profit is made, it's called a flop.

Here are Superman’s stats:
Capitalized at $400,000¹
Ticket sales prior to the opening clocked in at $100,000²
As of April 25th, ticket sales were $67,000 per week.³
By the time I saw the show in June of 1966, the theater was comfortable, neither full nor empty.

This does not sound like a show that was floundering.

Admittedly, there was a rocky start. Hal Prince reported:

Prince was convinced he had a smash hit until he called the box office. "They said, ‘My God, we haven’t sold a single new seat.’ "

But that didn’t last. On March 31st, two days after opening, Stuart W. Little reported in the New York Herald Tribune:

[Y]esterday … a Superman muscularity began to appear. The lines were already formed as the box office opened. The coffee wagon was brought out in front of the Alvin Theater. The expanded box-office staff of five treasurers was increased by one, and during the midday hours more than 100 customers were counted in line.

So, was Superman the biggest flop on Broadway at that time?
In short, no. In 1965, Kelly cost $650,000 and closed after one night. It outpaced Superman as "the biggest flop on Broadway" by a long shot.

How did Superman fare financially?
According to Jim Shooter, who attended the show when he was 14 years old, accompanied by his mother and Mort Weisinger:

A Broadway show is technically considered a "hit" if it breaks even or better. Superman was technically a hit, but a flop by producer Hal Prince's lofty standards. He told me so himself when I visited his office in 1987 or 1988 after I'd been hired by John Flaxman of the Hal Prince organization to write the story and script for a Star Wars musical.

So there you have it.
Hal Prince directly stated that the show at least broke even. True, in Contradictions, “It’s a Bird...” is listed as having lost its entire $400,000 investment. One of those investors was Columbia Records, the other may have been DC Comics. After all, as Mark Evanier points out, DC Comics had financially backed the George Reeves Adventures of Superman, which was not that far removed in time from the Broadway show.

Could both statements be true?
As a matter of fact, they could both be true. By strict definition, the investment in a Broadway show is lost if costs haven’t been recouped by the time the show ends. But that’s not the whole story. The Columbia Records cast album has never been out of print and is still being sold today. In other words, Columbia is still making money from their investment in Superman. And if the second investor was DC Comics, then they are continuing to make money every time a new revival is staged, and this show has been revived over and over again in the fifty-plus years since the curtain fell on Broadway.

A hit AND a flop? This is a feat that only Superman could pull off. And I never, ever count Superman out!

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