In news that should come as no surprise to anyone with even a passing interest in pop culture, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Hamilton is making a ton of money. While some Broadway hits, like Wicked, take years to recoup their initial investments —and others, like Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, tank—Hamilton has grossed $61.7 million at the box office since it debuted last July, meaning its investors have most likely completely recouped their $12.5 million capitalization. Currently, The Hollywood Reporter says, the show takes in about $900,000 a week before royalties are paid and after rent. And that’s not even taking into account the exorbitant rates that scalpers are charging for tickets.
The THR piece fully breaks down the show’s finances in a way that’s both interesting and envy-inducing. Take, for instance, this passage about how much money Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is making:
The Public Theater receives a weekly royalty of 1 percent of the adjusted box-office gross. As the sole author, Miranda, 36, gets a 7 percent cut—which means that in a typical week of eight shows he can make about $105,000 in royalties. (That’s on top of his negotiated salary for starring as Alexander Hamilton.) Both parties get an extra 0.5 percent once the show is 110 percent recouped.
And that’s not all! Assuming the show is fully recouped—which is not confirmed, but is extremely likely—Miranda is also making “three percent of the net profit (on top of his weekly royalty),” according to THR. He, along with the show’s investors, stand to profit even more in the years to come as well. As THR notes,
As Hamilton expands beyond Broadway, more revenue streams will open. Producers will charge licensing fees from road productions: Chicago gets an open-ended run starting Sept. 27, and a national tour kicks off in San Francisco in March 2017 before hitting L.A. and other cities. In addition, the Hamilton soundtrack has generated a surprisingly strong $6 million in revenue in the U.S., according to Billboard, which Miranda and Co. split with label Atlantic Records, music publishers and the cast recording’s producers, who include The Roots’ Questlove and Black Thought. And the windfall should last years. Explains [theatrical lawyer Elliot] Brown: “You’re going to have sources of income from stock and amateur [productions], like when your high school does the show, and from the movie of Hamilton, which we certainly can expect to get done.”