‘Kinky Boots’ turns profit on $13.5-million Broadway investment

“Kinky Boots,” the popular Broadway musical based on the 2006 Miramax film of the same name, has turned a profit on its $13.5-million investment.

Producers of the musical comedy said Thursday that they have recouped their initial investment on the production, which opened in New York in April following a tryout run in Chicago. The production, which features a score by ‘80s icon Cyndi Lauper, won the Tony Award for new musical this year.

The show’s box-office haul exceeds the box-office take of the movie in its U.S. theatrical run, which totaled under $2 million in non-inflation-adjusted dollars.

The Broadway musical is being helped at the box office by premium ticket pricing, a now-common marketing technique in which shows charge more for certain seats on popular evenings. The top ticket price for the show is $349, the second-most expensive seat on Broadway after “The Book of Mormon,” according to data from the Broadway League.

“Kinky Boots” producers will see additional revenue streams when a touring version of the musical kicks off in Las Vegas in 2014.

The original movie -- which starred Chiwetel Ejiofor and Joel Edgerton, who were both relatively unknown in the U.S. at the time -- tells the story of a shoe factory in England that is saved by a resourceful drag queen.

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