Here's a little mini-doc on the five most expensive original musicals ever to be presented on Broadway. According to this, they are — going from the fifth most-expensive to the first — Frozen, Shrek, King Kong, The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Of these, only Lion King (still running with no indications it might close soon) has been deemed a huge hit. Frozen reportedly did well enough to recoup its investment before closing due to The Pandemic. It and Shrek probably were and/or are very successful in national tours.
The Lion King is the only one of these five shows I saw. In fact, I saw it in Manhattan just after it opened and I saw it on tour in Los Angeles and I didn't much like it either time. Obviously, this is a minority viewpoint. Have I ever told the story here of what I went through to see it in New York? If I haven't, maybe I will one of these days.
I'm not entirely clear what the lesson is to be learned from the failures except for the obvious one: It is possible to spend so much on something that it can't possibly be worth it. That pretty much applies to everything in life.
There might be a lesson about trying to replicate movie graphics and special effects on stage being a foolish gamble. I didn't like the Broadway version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (aka Willy Wonka) either. Then again, I loved Beauty and the Beast and I really loved the transfer of Xanadu from flop movie to modest Broadway success.
Draw your own conclusions. In the meantime, I still want to know what's become of that enormous puppet that was built for King Kong…