Everyone wants to be in the room where it happens. The “it”, of course, being the Broadway musical Hamilton, which is sold out through the end of the year. And the man who created it is making at least $105,000 a week in royalties.

Those lucky enough to get a ticket for a musical based on founding father Alexander Hamilton’s life have paid a pretty penny for it. Premium tickets sell for as much as $549 each, close to 55 of the $10 bills that bear the face of the nation’s first treasury secretary. Black market tickets can go for close to three times that. The show’s success is a boon for its investors, who put up $12.5m and – the rumor has it – have already been paid back.

“It might be one of the fastest returns ever for the show’s investors,” Ken Davenport, producer of the hit musical Kinky Boots, told the New York Post. “Rumors are already hitting the street that the show has fully recouped.”

Within five weeks of opening on Broadway, the show’s backers have received about 25% of their initial investment. And according to the financial statement obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, the show brought in about $61.7m by the start of this month. If you add in tickets bought in advance, the number goes up to about $82m.

That figure is not surprising, considering that before it even opened on Broadway in August, the show sold about $27.6m in pre-sale tickets. Overall, weekly ticket sales bring in about $1.5m. According to the New York Times, about $500,000 of it is profit.

So, where is all of that money going?

About 40% is spent on rent for the Richard Rodgers Theatre, salaries of the crew and staff and the show’s expenses, according to the Hollywood Reporter.



While it was in previews, the show spent about $100,000 a week on advertising and promotions.



Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the musical and stars in the lead role, gets a 7% cut. That’s equivalent to about $105,000 in royalties each week. Since the show is based on a biography written by Ron Chernow, Miranda pays him part of his royalties out of his share. Miranda also receives a salary for his role as Alexander Hamilton.



Producers Jeffrey Seller, Sander Jacobs and Jill Furman get a 3% share and a $3,000 weekly administrative fee.

According to the New York Times, the profits from the shows are divided among roughly 100 investors.

Late last year, members of the cast asked the show’s producers for a share of the gross.

“We live in a real world, and in that world, people are allowed to raise their hands and say, ‘May I please have more?’ And I don’t blame them. I would, too,” Seller, one of the producers, told the New York Times. While he said that they had reached an agreement with the cast, he would not disclose the details of the terms. “They are the ones bringing this show to life. It was a powerful argument they made; it was gut-­wrenching for me, and I took it seriously.”

The moneymaking machine is not yet complete. Hamilton is set to open in Chicago later this year and in London in 2017. A national tour will kick off in San Francisco next year.