Disney musical will set all-time revenue mark even before it opens on Friday

Performing-arts organizations are entering the most critical time of the year for revenue, and the Arvada Center, for one, is ready to meet the moment – and rub its feet.

Arts nonprofits live on the tiniest of margins, and any formula for sustainability relies on an old truth staying true: Families gather, they buy tickets and they attend shows together during the holiday season. There are some companies that generate up to half of their revenue for the entire year in November and December.

Right on cue, the Arvada Center is set to open the area’s first homegrown staging of Disney’s “Frozen” on Friday night. And it is not only “the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” said Artistic Director Lynne Collins – “it is shaping up to be the best-selling thing we’ve ever done.” And that covers 49 years of shows. 

The biggest-selling musical in Arvada Center history was “Elf” in 2018, which generated $1.196 million in ticket revenue. “Frozen” was within $8,000 of passing that mark by mid-day Thursday – 30 hours before the show even opens to the public. That record is …melting, probably by the end of the day. The Arvada Center is now projecting more than $1.265 million in “Frozen” sales.

This is the monster hit the Arvada Center has needed – and the kind of monster hit every arts organization that has been slowly climbing back from the pandemic shutdown – needs.

“It is enormously important to us,” Arvada Center Director of Communications Sarah Kolb said.

Director Kenny Moten’s highly anticipated, star-studded staging does not feature the largest number of actors in Arvada Center history, “but it is the largest number of human beings involved with making a show happen,” Kolb said.

In terms of special effects and overall production values, Collins added, “this show requires every trick that there is, all in one show.”

“Frozen,” of course, is the story of what happens when Princess Anna sets out to break her kingdom’s curse of – nope, I am not wasting one more keystroke telling you what you and millions of young girls already know. Just letting that go.

Companies like the Arvada Center depend on subscribers who come to see every show they stage throughout the year, but they also depend on reliable outliers who only come to perhaps one show every year – usually whatever is being staged in December. “Those are people who value spending time together at this time of year,” Kolb said – “and they are vital to us.”

CEO Philip Sneed was the first to lay down the hard truth after the pandemic shutdown, acknowledging that arts organizations would be lucky to ever build back to within 15% of attendance totals in the “before times” – a forecast that has proven prophetic over the past few years.

But something is shifting. Since the Arvada Center’s latest fiscal year began in July, it has staged “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” and “The Mousetrap” – neither traditional Broadway musicals – and both have exceeded their attendance projections.

“We’re having a really great year,” Kolb said. One that is bound to get better in the coming days. The Arvada Center already has sold 18,492 seats to “Frozen,” and Kolb expects that number to go past 21,000 by the time the show closes on Jan. 4. That would represent close to 80% of capacity for the show’s 50 scheduled performances, which in local theater is spectacular.

But, fun fact: The Arvada Center’s total attendance record is probably safe. That distinction goes to its 2008 production of “Les Misérables,” which drew 22,937.

“Big picture, we do feel that we’re seeing comparable audiences to 2018-19 returning for our ’25-26 season,” Kolb said. “It’s been a slower return to those benchmarks than anyone hoped, but we’re feeling very positive so far this year.”

“Frozen” tickets are available at arvadacenter.org. Other big area musical offerings for the holiday season include “Mary Poppins” at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; “Annie” at the Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton; “The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate’s Production of “A Christmas Carol” at the Aurora Fox; “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” at Vintage Theatre in Aurora; “Million Dollar Quartet Christmas” at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown; and “Legally Blonde” at Jesters Dinner Theatre in Longmont.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is offering “A Christmas Carol” (a play with music, through Dec. 28); “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” (Dec. 3-7); and the touring Broadway musical “The Notebook” (Dec. 16-28).