Early in my career, my bosses asked me to join them at an advertising/marketing/press meeting for our new production. I was thrilled to be sitting at the table (well, in a chair behind my bosses due to lack of table space) and was able to follow the discussions about the plans to roll out the show. However, when the discussion turned to “the numbers,” I was confused about some of the terms I hadn’t heard before and had a lot of questions when we returned to the office. This is the second part of a preliminary guide to some of the terms one might hear in reference to ticket sales.
In Part 1, we discussed the big four: wrap, advance, box office (BO) gross/net, ATP. Today we’ll discuss some ticketing measurements that are linked to the theme of timing: past, present and future.
Played off: Simply put, it refers to the performances that have already occurred. This term is most often used in context of the advance — as each performance occurs, the BO gross from that performance is deducted from the advance. Played off is just another way of indicating the performances that have already occurred to decrease the amount of the advance before the wraps are added in. After two weeks of performances, you could say that 16 performances have played off the advance, while 14 days of wraps have been added in.
