There are important reasons to keep accurate records and a running tally of the production's profits and losses. Firstly, the production's financial information must be reported to any investors and the appropriate state and federal securities regulators if capital to mount the show was raised through a securities offering. The theatre may be a non-profit organization, in which case the information must be provided to the board of directors. Secondly, updated information helps the producer determine how and whether to expend more or less money on advertising or whether to cut losses and close the show. Thirdly, repertory theatres need to determine whether the show is meeting projected targets so that yearly budgets may be adjusted accordingly. The daily box office statement provides financial results from each performance. The wrap sheet and advance reports are useful forecasting tools because future box office patterns can be gleaned from the information contained therein.
The box office statement will categorize the type of tickets sold. For example, tickets may be sold at full price or at various discounted prices. The box office manager inputs the number of seats sold in the various categories and calculates the total revenue received for each ticket price. Unsold seats must be accounted for. Unsold seats include the physical tickets that remain at the box office. If any tickets consigned to outside ticket sellers were not presented at the box office for the day's performance, the non-presented tickets also constitute unsold seats. The total number of passes, discounted tickets, and unsold seats for each performance are known as "dead wood."
The "dead wood" plus all full-price tickets sold should be equal to the total seating capacity. All tickets and ticket stubs should be physically counted, crosschecked against the numbers, and reconciled.
As a last step, any charges and deductions must be documented in the box office statement. Charges and deductions may include bank and credit card handling fees and any adjustments for charge-backs from credit card companies.
The total revenue for that day's performance results from the calculations. Total week-to-date revenue is carried forward and added in to the daily performance revenue. All daily totals for the week constitute the week-to-date revenue for the production.
The daily wrap sheet breaks out the various types of ticket sales such as ticket sales made at an off-site ticket booth, by mail and phone orders, and through group sales. The dollar value of the combined ticket sales for one day constitutes the daily "wrap" for the day. An advance is the total dollar value of ticket sales for future performances. The advance is calculated by adding all advance ticket sales as of the previous day's closing to the daily wrap then deducting the gross from that day's performance. For example, if the box office showed an advance of $ 10,000 as of Monday, November 1st and a $ 200 wrap and $ 800 gross for Tuesday, the advance on Tuesday would be $ 9,400. Based on these figures, the producer can project the rate of new and advance sales in future weeks.
Copyright 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
