September 19, 2025
Categories:
Corporate & Supply Chain
Thomas Paulson
7 minute read

The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere – A breakout hit

In our last story about the blowout opening of the Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas, we promised to come back to the story with next week’s results and Wow! did it perform strongly. Based upon observed visits and a $200 average ticket cost, we estimate that attendance for the Thursday – Sunday period (10 showings) increased by 60% to 72K tickets and $15M in box office. In movies, the WoW decay in box office is typically 50%. To have a 2nd and even 3rd weekend exceed its opening weekend is highly unusual. It happens sometimes with Broadway hits after strong reviews and accolades by patrons; that seems to be what’s at work in Oz’s case.


Thomas Paulson

Thomas has been Head of Market Insights since January 2025. Previously, he served as Director of Research and Business Development at Placer.ai, where he was instrumental in providing actionable insights derived from location analytics and the path for expansion into new verticals. His extensive background also includes two decades as a buyside analyst and portfolio manager at Alliance Bernstein, Cornerstone, and others. Prior to that tenure he worked as an economist. Thomas also currently serves as the Co-Chair of the National Association for Business Economics Retail / Consumer Roundtable.