Flop-hit

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Flop-hit, a term coined by American critic Frank Rich in his book The Hot Seat, refers to a theatrical production (often on Broadway, where economics are difficult) that appears to be a hit but turns out to lose money (a "flop").

The mechanics of a flop-hit are complex. As Rich explains it, in order to produce a play a certain amount of capital must be raised; when the play runs, it has weekly expenses that must be paid by weekly ticket receipts. In order for a play to run it must meet this weekly break-even point, but that initial capital (sometimes over many millions of US$) is only paid back in weekly bits out of whatever is left over after the expenses are met. Thus a play can run indefinitely and appear to be a runaway hit, but close to a large financial loss for its initial backers.

Some recent Broadway productions that fall into the category of flop-hit are Woman of the Year, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, The Will Rogers Follies, and Sunset Boulevard, the latter of which ran more than two years on Broadway in the mid-90s without paying back any of its more than US$10 million outlay.