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| re: Jujamcyn sues over paltry Covid payout: my personal experience | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 08:05 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: Jujamcyn sues over paltry Covid payout - StageLover 02:24 pm EDT 08/26/20 | |
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| first, may I say that my clear understanding is that all of the Broadway shows which suspended, but did not close or load out, are paying weekly basic rent to the theatreowners at the very least. Just like your landlord - no way around the rent. I also understand that theatreowners are being patient, waiting for shows to collect their insurance, to pay that rent. And i also understand that owning theatres is highly profitable, so get over it Jujamcyn. Beyond that, I have had a show (actually 3, but thats another story) close. Our offices, like Jujamcyn's theatres, have General Liability Insurance - and these policies only pay off if you are forced to close because of physical inability to use one's offices (or theatre). If you are still collecting rent, you havent closed. And the loss from having no performances is not considered your loss, its the Producers loss. Jujamcyn is not the producer. Restaurants can't claim on their insurance either for the same reason. So we pay office rent, even though we are not using our offices, and our insurance will not cover this. Most Broadway shows have the same insurance that my show has - its included as an option not in General Liability, but in the Theatrical Package - which covers scenery, costumes, lighting equipment, third party damage, AND performance disruption insurance. The theatrical package on our show cost us $4,057. It is paying us MUCH more than that. Now, this show wasn't ON Broadway - some Broadway shows have received $4-5 million to date from insurance carriers. And it is indeed the 'closed by Civil Authorities' clause that allows one to get a policy payout, on the Theatrical Package/Performance Disruption polices. These policies are written on the assumption that maybe there will be a blizzard, or terrorist attack or some short term even that may cause your show to miss up to a week or so of performances. No one thought pandemic, and so there was no exclusion in these policies. Insurers - mainly Chubb on Broadway - are taking a huge hit. Of course these policies have a maximum payout. And how do you figure out what the loss from 'performance disruption' was? Fairly simple, if your show is already open. In our case, we took the average weekly net operating profit, before royalties. In doing this we eliminated our best and worst weeks for the computation. We came up with our average weekly projected operating profit based on sales to date, and showed advance sales, and our ten week out chart, as well. The first two (2) lost performances are not covered. We added to this some costs we incurred by closing without notice. Multiplied projected weekly operating profit times total lost weeks, added the extra costs, made the claim. The insurance paid 98% of what we claimed. Theatreowners did not/do not have the option to take out this kind of Theatrical Package insurance - it is specifically for productions. One play. By the production company. We know that all insurers, going forward, will now have a pandemic exclusion on these polices, although they may pay for 'x' lost performances even then. |
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| re: Jujamcyn sues over paltry Covid payout: my personal experience | |
| Posted by: ryhog 09:56 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Jujamcyn sues over paltry Covid payout: my personal experience - NewtonUK 08:05 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
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| This is a good general summary to which I will add only one footnote (mentioned elsewhere) which is that insurance policies are negotiable and are not all the same. While the described insurance is likely present in all off-B productions and many if not most Broadway productions, it is not universal. Disney almost certainly does not insure in this way and there may well be other producers doing something similar (Mackintosh coming quickly to mind). And likewise there is no set policy for theatre landlords any more than for any landlord but the nature of the beast is such that the primary focus is on property not revenue but they do not have to buy a product off the shelf although it sounds like Jujamcyn mostly did. | |
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| re: Jujamcyn sues over paltry Covid payout: my personal experience | |
| Posted by: fosse76 12:40 pm EDT 08/27/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Jujamcyn sues over paltry Covid payout: my personal experience - ryhog 09:56 am EDT 08/27/20 | |
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| Just to add, the Shubert Organization also "invests" in many, if not most, of the shows in its houses. I imagine they would also have some type of modification to the insurance as described above. I imagine Jujamcyn and Nederlander do as well, but I'm not sure if it is as prolific as it is with the Shuberts. | |
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