I don't think that one theater group will provide a different story every week.
Depends on the theater. If this is a repertory theater with multiple shows (20 to 30) in repertory, then 3-4 different shows every week would be a norm. But mostly, the variety is provided because there is more than one theater group in the town, plus touring shows.
I think production values - and costs - are a real factor in current shows and when we talk of gross receipts the different shows make we also have to consider the costs (cast/crew is also a bog expense)
I guess it's time for me to share my knowledge about show production
I can only speak from my experience and my experience is a bit dated; also, there are aspects that differ from country to country. Nevertheless...
The first thing that my showbiz teacher said was: "You can't make money doing live shows. It's impossible. That's the rule you must always keep in mind. Most companies that produce live shows (theaters, circus, dance companies etc.) either struggle to find their balance or are in debt. And now, when you know it, if you want your show to happen anyway, we can start working. How do I know that you want your show to happen anyway? Because there are only two types of people in our business: people who love our business more than they love money and people who are desperate because they are incapable of doing anything else. So, let's go. When you produce a live show, your task is to figure out a way how to avoid bankruptcy resulting from your project and keep things going in future."
Why so? The show business is not like a normal business. In a normal business, you pay wages every day but you also earn a revenue every day. In show business, there is a pre-production period when you pay wages, pay your office expenses and work expenses, pay insurances and taxes, and earn nothing - and this period may last from several months to several years (good news: the staff employed during this period is usually small). Then, there is the production period when you hire lots of people, pay lots of wages, rent a lot of room for meetings, rehearsals, and dress rehearsals, buy materials for work, buy or rent technologies, pay for promotion. This period lasts from several weeks to several months. During this period, you spend big and earn nothing (good news: you can monitor the ticket sales online and show numbers to your sponsors lol). Technically, you are earning money from tickets sold. De facto, you'll receive the net revenue (gross revenue minus the share of ticket sellers and distributors, minus taxes,) later or much later (the term depends on your contract). It's recommended that you don't rely on ticket sales only because you can never know how much you sell. Instead, secure other income: sell CDs, booklets, T-shirts, chocolates etc., if you are doing big - sell the streaming/televising rights. Finally, the preparation and production is over: it's time for the show run! You rent even more expensive venue(s), hire extra staff, hire means of transportation if you intend to tour, and off you go. Hopefully, your shows are sold out and your extras sell well. This income will cover part of your production expenses. If you have a long enough run of sold-out shows, you may even cover all production expenses and have some money left. If you have a super-long show run (serious companies do), then the money made may be actually
very good. However, to successfully replicate a show for 100 or more times, you need (apart of the show being popular with the public) a long tour or you need a venue in a place with great tourist flow (i.e. Las Vegas) and/or it may take a longer lapse of time and increase of initial investment. Which is not always the option.
It means that, even if you are many years in the business, most likely you don't earn enough to finance your next project. You need to find other ways to make it happen. You can:
1) Minimize the production expenses: buy or rent the cheapest things, hire volunteer staff that will work for free etc. (sounds awful but there are many good indie shows done this way);
2) Borrow money/find an investor: you can get a really big budget this way but this is only an option for serious production companies that have a history of long-run shows that actually make money;
3) Apply for grants: there are governmental and private foundations for this purpose. Keep in mind that you need to apply in advance (sometimes, a year before) and, since many projects will apply, your application is at risk of being declined;
4) Find sponsors... allright, this has been discussed elsewhere on this thread and this post is too long already
Looking with my eyes, neither Hyoen nor OPOI are money making shows. Simply, there are too few shows given. However, with everything put together - the sponsors, the tickets, the extras, the streaming rights - they might make the balance and end in black. Which is, in my eyes, the most important target.
Yuzuru's shows are actually an interesting case: they may be in minuses as well as in pluses depending on how much Yuzu the Manager pays Yuzu the Performer
... but there are other forum members who know this subject better than I do.
