A retooled Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas did around $9.3M in box office receipts for the last Thursday – Sunday period; it’s second weekend. We base the estimate on observed visits of 46K for the four-day period and a seat price of $200 per showing. There are two showings Monday – Thursday and four on Saturday and Sunday. This second weekend benefited from all of the positive buzz after the opening weekend. Next weekend will be an important tell on what the ultimate becomes. One can find a description of the production here.

Sphere management has put a stretch target of “hundreds of millions.” Sphere Entertainment licensed the rights from its owner, Warner Bros, and spent $100M adapting it to fill the Sphere. The receipts for movies at the Sphere have a much higher margin than concerts, given that the artists take the majority of the revenue. The Eagles return for certain nights in October and November, and the Zach Brown Band in December, but outside of that, every night is Oz. And so, if each week does $15M, ex the music, that would be around $255M for the year. Assuming that Warner Bros’ take was $15M, the project will then have generated $140M in profits, with all of 2026 in front of it. Wizardly success! Will come back to the story in early November.