Are the Four-Walled Shows Paying Rent?

Related to the 7/31 QoD, "Are the show headliners getting paid?", are the shows/performers who four-wall having to pay rent during the time they can't do shows?

For those who aren't familiar with the term, "four-walled" comes from the movie industry, where a studio or distributor rents movie theaters for a specified period of time and receives all the box-office revenue. That removes the risk from the theater owner, who is guaranteed payment regardless of how many people show up and buy tickets to see the movie.

In Las Vegas parlance, when a producer or entertainer owns the own show, as opposed to the casino company, it's called "four-walling." The producer/entertainer pays rent on the room where the performance takes place and recoups that expense, along with production costs, from the sales of tickets, beverages, and merchandise.

In Las Vegas, four-walling has become a common arrangement, practically the norm. Superstars like Celine, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Britney Spears are paid set fees per performance by the casino, but most of the rest of the shows are four-walled.

To get to the answer, Boyd Gaming spokesman David Stow says, “I can’t speak for the other operators, but we do not currently have any performers under four-wall contracts. We did have some prior to the pandemic, but those have been canceled and we're working to reschedule their performances to next year. So the short answer is no. We aren’t collecting payments from four-wall performers right now.”

Designer Todd von Bastiaans says four-walling, however, is more prevalent than one might think. He cites X Burlesque, all of David Saxe’s many Miracle Mile shows, even David Copperfield.

We shook the branches of the Las Vegas showbiz network and precious few answers fell out. Ultimately, the most definitive was the simplest, offered by producer Adam Steck (Thunder from Down Under). “There is no rent or revenue-share deal (two-wall) when there are no shows performing.”

He didn't add "Period," but it sounds to us like he could have.

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rokgpsman Sep-06-2020

Why not try this?

If I was the producer or manager of a show I'd take a look at booking the show in another country like Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. Many countries are further along than the USA in handling this virus and have returned to having entertainment, with some restrictions of course. It might not work for all shows because of the special theater requirements (for example shows such as "Le Reve" and "O" and "Ka") but singing, dancing, magic and other shows that just need a stage can perform in any nice theater. It would put the performers and production staff back to work earning money, keep their skills sharp and provide entertainment to a fresh audience yearning for 1st class shows. Shows like "Human Nature", "Penn and Teller" and several others could get back to performing simply by driving to Canada or flying to Australia, Japan, Europe. Concerts like Cher, Rod Stewart and all the others could do this. They've already lost over 6 months waiting for things to get better here.

Jackie Sep-06-2020

rokgpsman

An idea I'm sure already considered but each performer will have their own feelings about exposing themselves to the virus and international travel is still semi quarantined.  Those other countries you say are handling the virus better than the USA do not have the reporting infrastructure the US has for virus cases but the people in those countries did take the virus more seriously than those of the US so it was the people who controlled it, not their government as people in other countries have learned they are responsible for themselves and not a ward of their government.

Adam Cohen Sep-06-2020

How long

I seem to recall a previous question on how long it will take to get the big shows running.  Does anyone remember what that question was asked trying to find the answer

Deke Castleman Sep-06-2020

Adam

The question you're referring to was specifically about Cirque shows, though it can be extrapolated to others. We ran it on August 11. Here's the link:

https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/question/cirque-reconstitution/

VegasROX Sep-06-2020

2 great shows done

From what I've read, both LeReve and Human Nature have closed permanently as a result of the shutdown. We generally don't go see a show more than once, but these were 2 of the 3 that we did, with Celine being the third. Here's hoping both do find a way to come back.

O2bnVegas Sep-06-2020

ditto

Somehow I was comped two tickets to LeReve some time back.  I hadn't been that much into seeing it, almost skipped it, but it turned out to be a favorite.

And Human Nature was 'my' music, doo wop era.  Loved it.

Adam Cohen Sep-06-2020

deke @ lva

Thank you

Question of the Day - 06 September 2020

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