\'King Kong\' Producer Eyeing Spider-Man\'s Broadway Lair

Will King Kong be fighting Spider-Man for Broadway's Foxwoods Theater in the near future?

The producer of the big-budget Australian musical “King Kong,” which is scheduled to open in Melbourne in June, is eyeing the Foxwoods Theater â€" a cavernous venue that has the most seats of any Broadway house â€" as the ideal place to land the show in New York, perhaps as early as 2014, according to three theater producers familiar with discussions about a Broadway outing for “King Kong.”

Only a handful of Broadway theaters are big enough to accommodate the large-scale “King Kong,” which has a reported budget of more than $30 million, not to mention the one-ton, 20-foot tall silverback Kong. And the Foxwoods is regarded as the best equipped given its enormous backstage space and state-of-the-art technology now being used for its current tenant, the $75 million musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

“King Kong” would be the biggest spectacle †" and probably the biggest budget â€" on Broadway since “Spider-Man.” Yet the producers of “Spider-Man” said in an interview this week that they have no plans to vacate the Foxwoods anytime soon.

The crux of the matter is ticket sales for “Spider-Man.” The show opened in June 2011 to negative reviews but has since became a favorite show of many children and families, and set the record for the highest weekly gross ever on Broadway - $2.94 million â€" between last Christmas and New Year's. But the box office for “Spider-Man” has cooled a bit recently: Thanksgiving week was down 17 percent from the comparable week in 2011.

“Spider-Man” is still regularly among the top 5 on Broadway, grossing about $1.5 million a week on average, yet its profit margin is relatively modest because the weekly running costs of the elaborate production are so high, at more than $1 million a week.

The general manager of the Foxwoods Theater, Erich Jungwirth, said in an interview this week that he had been contacted by the “King Kong” producer, Carmen Pavlovic of the company Global Creatures, and discussed the show and the possibility of a booking in the Foxwoods. Mr. Jungwirth said that while he thought much of the “King Kong” designs and artistry were “beautiful,” and that its giant gorilla puppetry could be “a fascinating fit” in the Foxwoods, the theater was committed to “Spider-Man.” He added that he was not concerned about softening ticket sales for the show.

“I'm more bullish than some others about ‘Spider-Man' and think it could run on Broadway for more than just a couple of more years,” Mr. Jungwirth said. “If ‘King Kong' is a success in Australia in mid-2013, it's not crazy to think that it will show up on Broadway sometime in 2014, and I don't see the Foxwoods being available in 2014.”

Ms. Pavlovic, in response to questions sent by e-mail about the Foxwoods Theater and “King Kong,” declined to confirm that the Foxwoods (which is owned by Live Nation Entertainment) was her first choice for a Broadway house. She has also pitched “King Kong” to the Shubert Organization, which owns another of the largest theaters in New York, the Broadway.

“We are looking at a multitude of options following the launch of ‘King Kong' in Australia, including possible runs in New York, London and other major theater markets around the world,” she said by e-mail. “Of course New York City, being the home of King Kong, is really important to us! Right now, however, all our focus is on opening the production in Melbourne next year and we haven't set a time-line for anything beyond that. We are extremely flattered that so many traditional and non-traditional theatrical venues are interested in hosting the show.”

The two lead producers of “Spider-Man,” Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, said in an interview this week that they had no plans to give way to “King Kong” and expected to be playing in the Foxwoods for another four to five years at least. They said that ticket sales were on the upswing; Mr. Harris attributed the Thanksgiving drop-off to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (although some hit shows, like “Wicked,” set records), while Mr. Cohl said the ticket slide was simply due to the passage of time.

He declined to discuss how much of “Spider-Man's” $75 million capitalization had been paid back to the show's producers and investors, but estimated that, to recoup the entire $75 million and turn a profit, the show would need to run another five to seven years on Broadway at its current level of ticket sales.

“I would say I'm much more optimistic now about the future of ticket sales than I was in August and September,” Mr. Cohl said, referring to the traditional period when many Broadway shows experience a box office slump. “I think ‘Spider-Man' will be on Broadway at the Foxwoods for a good long while.”