These days it costs something like $20 million to open a musical on Broadway, that geography being defined as one of 41 theaters in Manhattan with at least 500 seats. When the musical Suffs closed in January 2025 after less than a year on Broadway, it hadn’t earned back its production costs. The 24 musicals now on Broadway are selling tickets at an average of $1 million a week, per a tabulation by the Broadway League. Off Broadway, Sussman says, the unions are far less exacting. Even a disappointing musical can eventually edge into the profit column, Sussman says.