TARA ARTS
Deals Sheet Glossary
Guarantee:
A fixed amount of money the venue will pay a visiting company for its services regardless of the final box office income. If the box office takings exceed this amount, the venue keeps the difference.
Eg: The venue offers a guarantee of £1,000. If the production takes £990 through Box Office sales, the venue will still pay the visiting company £1,000. However, in this deal if the venue takes £2,000 through sales, the visiting company still only gets £1,000.
With this deal, the risk lies with the venue. This deal is usually provided by subsidised theatres to companies who supply productions which meet the remits of the funding.
The amount guaranteed depends on several factors:
- The visiting company’s popularity
- How well known the show is
- Reviews of current or previous work
- Size/Capacity of the venue
- Ticket prices
- The venue’s audience
Box Office split:
In this deal, the box office income is shared between the venue and the visiting company to an agreed ratio. A deal with a 80/20 split means that the visiting company will receive 80% and the venue 20% of the final box office takings.
A Box Office split is quite commonly used in combination with other deal types.
Net box office: All deals are based on the NET box office income, which is the total gross income minus VAT (currently 20%) and any admin fees or credit card commissions.
Guarantee against box office %: The box office income is shared just like in a box office split, but the visiting company is guaranteed a minimum payment (smaller than it would be with a flat guarantee) after which the remains are split.
Eg: Total box office takings were £5,000. In the contract, the venue agreed to a guarantee of £500 and a box office split of 50/50. The company would receive £500 + net box office circa £2,250 = £2,750. The venue would receive £2,250.
1st call: In this kind of deal it is usually the visiting company that receives the first call. This works off the same principle as a guarantee, except that the amount specified in the 1st call is more like a cap and will not guarantee payment of the full amount. Meaning, if the 1st call is £2,000 and the total box office takings were £1,143, the company will receive £1,143 and not £2,000.
2nd call: After the first call, the other party (usually the venue) can receive a 2nd call. For shows with large box office potentials there can be a number of calls, though often after a 2nd call both parties will agree on a box office split for the remainder.
Eg: The total box office income was £6,000. The contract says the company has a 1st call of £1,500 and the venue a 2nd call of £2,000 with any remainder split 60/40. The company would receive £1,500 + next box office circa £1,500 (60%) = £3,000. The venue would receive £2,000 + £1000 (40%) = £3,000
Hire
The visiting company pays a flat fee for using the venue and keeps all eventual box office income less agency charges and commissions. If the venue is VAT registered the hire fee is usually fee + VAT eg: £1000 hire plus £20% VAT = £1200 hire charge
Royalty off-the-top:
A royalty charge which the visiting company charges to the venue to cover all royalties it needs to pay for all copyrighted material used in their production. These are paid before any box office deals start to take any effect.
Eg: The box office takings were £10,000. The deal is 1.5% royalty off the top for the playwright with a 70/30 split. The company would receive £150 + £6,895 = £7,045. The £150 off royalties would then be paid to the playwright. The venue would receive £2,955,
Contra: Part of the contractual agreement between the venue and company which describes the costs incurred by the venue which will be passed on to the company. This can include the hiring of technical or front of house staff, duty managers and marketing. In theory this should all be included in the agreement in which case contras are designed for any extra expense incurred by the venue on the company’s behalf. There are deals to be made on this in combination with box office negotiations.
Jonathan Kennedy
Nov 14
1
People, Words & Art: Connecting Worlds