`A Steady Rain` with Daniel Craig clocking in $1.3m per week

Why would Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, two of the planet’s biggest film stars, spend the fall on Broadway in Keith Huff’s modest two-hander, “A Steady Rain”?

Eight times a week, they spend 85 minutes mostly sitting on chairs, legs akimbo, verbally sparring in the gruff lingo of a police procedural - reports Bloomberg.

Movie stars come to Broadway for various reasons, money rarely among them. More typically, they want to jump-start a sagging career, gain the respect of peers or just fill the down time between seasons.

For a bona fide star like Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman, both of whom have done Broadway plays in recent seasons, even a paycheck that can easily top $75,000 per week pales next to their multimillion dollar movie salaries.

So how are James Bond and Wolverine doing?

For their work in the 12-week run of “A Steady Rain,” Craig and Jackman stand to earn about $1.5 million each, plus living expenses (I’m guessing they’re not bunking down at the Econo Lodge).

Last week the show sold $1.239 million worth of tickets, besting the blockbuster musical “Jersey Boys” by almost $80,000. Only three shows, all musicals running in much larger theaters, took in more. “A Steady Rain” further proved its box-office mettle with the highest average per-ticket cost, $146.93, of any show, musicals included.

Broadway Record

It holds the record for highest single-week ticket sales of any non-musical in Broadway history, despite the fact that many critics struggled to find anything good to say about the play itself. Such nitpicking is of little concern to the producers.

“It goes without saying that the show will make a substantial profit,” said Fred Zollo, the lead producer, who confirmed my figures. “Our investors are people who take pleasure in the theater and, yes, they want to make a profit.”

They will.

The work of a Broadway newcomer, “A Steady Rain” is the somewhat maudlin he-said, he-said tale of lifelong, Chicago-born friends and partners in crime-fighting who have, as Yogi Berra might say, come to a fork in the road and taken it.

A one-act, two-character melodrama with meaty roles in which actors can shine is hard to resist, not only for the stars but for the producers as well: Expenses, beyond the salaries, are minimal.

Holiday Gift

Those weekly figures are likely to increase during the holiday season, when more customers are willing to pay premium prices in the secondary market for the sold-out run.

Jackman keeps quiet about his film earnings, but more is known about Craig. According to published figures, he earns about $12 million per Bond film.

In June 2008, during the grueling six-month shoot of “Quantum of Solace,” he sliced off a significant part of a finger. While busy leaping from buildings, beds and boats, he also cut his face badly enough to require eight stitches.

At the Schoenfeld Theatre, he doesn’t even have to change costumes, let alone location (or bandages).

Craig and Jackman are paid 10 percent of the “Steady Rain” box office. So last week, they earned about $120,000 each (or $7,500 an hour).

Their deals are not substantially different from other top stars, such as Roberts, who appeared in Broadway’s last wet drama, “Three Days of Rain.” They’re the reason people line up for tickets. It can even be argued that when people can’t get into those shows, they will settle for others, a good thing for the entire industry.

Running Costs

Where does the rest of that $1.2 million go? About $72,000, or 6 percent, to the landlord, which is the Shubert Organization. Weekly running costs of about $250,000 cover stagehands, ushers, box office personnel, general management, overhead and the like.

That leaves $638,000 for the 10 producers (among them the Shuberts, so their take is actually substantially more than the rent check) and participants in the profit pool, which includes Huff, along with the director and designers.

Cost of the physical production was negligible: The set consists of two kitchen chairs under a pair of suspended lights and a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t Windy City backdrop. “The Phantom of the Opera” it is not.

Good for Business

Highly paid stars are nothing new: A few blocks from the Schoenfeld is a revival of “The Royal Family,” a 1927 comedy about the Barrymores, who lived very high indeed on the Broadway hog. I share Zollo’s conviction that the more variety on Broadway, the better for business.

As “A Steady Rain” shows, however, Broadway doesn’t even have to stand in Hollywood’s shadow as income generator. The boxoffice tally for musicals like “Cats” and “Phantom” is in the billions -- that’s not a misprint -- and counting.

Still, the odds of scoring a blockbuster, which is the holy grail of both realms, is about the same on either coast, which is to say not good. “Steady Rain” hit the trifecta.

The play may end up on the big screen as well. Zollo’s wife, Barbara Broccoli, is another of the show’s producers. More significantly, she is also the co-producer, with her half- brother, Michael G. Wilson, of the Bond movies, a franchise begun by their father, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. They plan to turn “A Steady Rain” into a film vehicle for Craig and Jackman.

Everybody wins -- and no one loses a finger.

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