Business idea - we open a private circus. How trainers and acrobats are losing viewers and income

Not state circuses Is not a very common phenomenon in the CIS. At the same time, it can bring a very solid income: an example of this is the Nikulin circus in Moscow. So creative person with some means and business skills, it may well make money on the maintenance of your own circus, and at the same time get a lot of pleasure.

Possible options.

Circuses are of two types: stationary and mobile. The organization of a stationary circus will require very serious investments: the construction and equipment of the corresponding premises (10-12 thousand sq. M.) Will cost several million dollars. This amount consists of the costs of building the arena (area - 700 sq. M, diameter - exactly 30 m: this is the world standard) and auditorium for 500-1000 seats, equipping the circus with special devices (a dome and protective structures), equipping a buffet, dressing rooms, toilets, etc. A lot of money will be required to buy animals and cages for them, as well as their maintenance.

If you cannot afford such expenses, it is worth considering the option of a non-stationary circus (tent). For its successful operation, a special building is not needed - a prefabricated structure of posts-masts and a tarpaulin canopy is required. Such a tent can accommodate several hundred visitors (the arena should also be a standard 30-meter arena here), its cost is about $ 1 million, but the opening hours are limited by an exceptionally warm season.

There is an even more economical option - a prefabricated arena, over which an awning is simply pulled to protect from the sun and rain. It will cost several hundred thousand dollars, but the income will also bring much less, because the season of its work is rather short.

It's all about the genre.

The secret to the success of any circus is correct selection numbers and competent construction of the program. The most popular genres today are clownery, pantomime, magic tricks, balancing act, acrobatics, musical eccentricity, as well as performances of trained animals. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to try to present all these genres in your program, especially if you opted for the big top option. On the contrary, it is worth betting on 2-3 genres that you can really effectively and efficiently present, based on the capabilities of your artists and the preferences of the audience in the region where you will begin performing. And only then it will be possible to expand the program and even invite recognized stars of circus art: their participation in performances will attract a significant number of spectators and will not hit the already tight budget.

Separately, it should be said about the rooms with pets. They traditionally attract viewers, but in recent times the presence of such performances in the circus program can damage its popularity and reputation: in some European countries and North America similar numbers are prohibited as cruel treatment with animals. This should be taken into account if you plan to go international. In addition, by refusing to work with trained animals, you will save on their maintenance.

The most effective in this business is television advertising. However, there is no need to give up the time-tested means - posters, newspapers, radio. And of course, your reputation, earned by the good organization of the business and the quality of the artists' performances, will not leave people indifferent.

Main business idea: open a private circus.

Who is it for: for entrepreneurs with a high level of income.

Resources required: a traveling circus requires a special tent, or a building (if the circus is permanent place), artists, service staff, special equipment for staging numbers.

Initial capital: should be from 1 to 10 million dollars, and in addition, the cost of the circus premises must also be taken into account.

Foreword: circus business today is the most interesting and difficult to access for entrepreneurs with average incomes. This type of business is suitable for those who have huge wealth or are simply simply an adventurer and like to take risks. Despite the fact that this type of activity has been around for a very long time, there is still no doubt about its popularity. If the staging of a circus performance is rather unusual, then tickets are sold out in an instant. Many have long known what it is and have been to the circus more than once, but still hearing about unusual views, they go there over and over. After all, everyday routine life is boring, you want something new and beautiful, and sometimes a little fabulous and magical. And what can be seen under the dome of the circus cannot but be called fabulous. Acrobats performing various pirouettes at great heights simply captivate the views of others, and numbers with various animals give positive mood to every viewer. But if you look at all this from the other side, then we can say that the circus is a rather time-consuming and responsible project, which has difficult and consistent steps.

Step-by-step steps for opening a circus.

The main point is the choice of the room where the circus will be located (depending on whether it is mobile or stationary). In the first case, there are advantages in the fact that he is not tied to a specific place and can travel not only within his country, but also abroad, collect great amount viewers and, in accordance with this, make a good profit. also in this option there is no need for a constant change of performances.

The stationary circus has plenty of shortcomings. Such a circus would be very costly. Although in a stationary circus the capacity of spectators is much higher, and accordingly, the income is higher, because in a mobile circus there are not so many spectators and animals do not always tolerate the road well. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to invest in the creation of a stationary circus - go for it!

Success depends on the level of the artist!

Undoubtedly, the success of the entire circus will depend on the well-chosen artists and the rest of the staff (managers, musicians, director and others). But most often such artists are already employed and can work in another circus, in which case it remains either to entice them to yourself, or else to hire novice, but responsible "circus performers". Also for the performances you will need animals and the organization of performance numbers. It usually takes about 6 months to 3 years to organize the performance (and train the animal). During this time, numbers and decorations are being prepared, and costumes are being sewn. But, despite all this waste and moral stress, a circus performance will pay off all these costs.

How to explain the huge budgets for performances that make up Western circuses. what items are mandatory, what expenses are taken into account.

Preparing a show is a very expensive undertaking. Even if we imagine that it will go on an already existing site (nothing needs to be built). First you need an idea, a concept. In the modern competitive world of show business, successful idea- this is the guarantee of the future profitability of the presentation. A creative team of specialists from different genres is working on the concept and script. After working out the idea, the process of selecting and training artists begins, staging each number, making inventory, sewing costumes, writing or selecting music, preparing special effects. Given the need for a fairly long rehearsal before the release of the show ( modern shows associated with risk and "fancy" tricks), the preparation of a new performance takes six months. But some shows are being prepared for 1-3 years. As a result, the entire preparation process turns out to be very costly.

Is the circus in the west profitable business? What are the most striking examples.

Most vivid example of course, this is Cirque du Soleil with its huge budgets for the preparation of each show (average $ 25-50 million). The average profitability of their business is 20%. The average European circus has a profitability of about 10-25%.

Other most successful circus projects include Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey, The Blue Monkey Sideshow, Zippo's Circus, Berlin Circus Renz, Circus Belly, Fern Street Circus, Great Wall Entertainment, Hungarian State Circus and Variety, Mamaloucos Circus and others.

What is the average profit for a circus from one performance?

Usually the performance takes place in halls with a capacity of 2000 people or more. Prices for performances range from $ 30 to $ 260 (typically). Average ticket prices are around $ 130. In total, one performance will amount to about $ 260,000. More expensive and massive shows bring in only 400-500 thousand dollars on tickets. In addition, circuses always sell additional products - snacks, toys, discs, etc. - all with a profitability of 100% or more. This also generates income up to 10% of the cost of tickets.

How many programs are there usually in the repertoire of Western circuses? how does their cost vary? costs for them?

The circus repertoire is structured in different ways. For example, Cirque du Soleil has a repertoire of 25 shows (there are about 17 different shows at the same time different countries), other circuses may have 6-10 shows in reserve. The main thing that circus performances, going on any stage, changed every 1-2 months. Naturally, all circuses periodically prepare new shows.

All circuses have so-called "tour shows", that is, those performances that the circus can show on the road. There are performances that the circus shows only on its own stage. Stationary shows tend to be more expensive to prepare and stage.

Depending on the task facing the circus, the performance budget may differ significantly. Thus, investments in Cirque du Soleil productions reached $ 200 million (together with the construction of the theater). Their touring shows cost an average of $ 20-25 million, and permanent ones cost $ 40-50 million. An ordinary production of an ordinary circus costs ~ $ 1 million. The average cost of preparing a show high level- $ 10 million

What size net profit receive the largest Western circuses per year?

About $ 100 million per year, up to $ 120 million

About the circus business in Russia

The Russian circus is still one of the most powerful in the world. However, due to perestroika and the events that followed it, Russia lost its presence in the global market in a corporate sense. Russian circus artists are considered one of the most powerful in the world, they are invited to work abroad, but as individuals, and not as a "circus".

Hopefully, thanks to public policy and the efforts of private circuses, the situation may change in the next 2-3 years.

As for the approaches, there are several options:
- a circus for children (family leisure): a traditional Russian circus with a variety of circus numbers, animals, clowns;
- circus show, built mainly on acrobatic performances, the main audience is adults and children,
- circus show, united common scenario, i.e. a performance including circus numbers; as a rule, there are no numbers with animals, a lot of special effects, designed for an adult audience.

The structure of stationary and traveling circuses has the following main divisions:
- the leadership of the circus (director, his deputy);
- art part (main director, chief conductor, orchestra artists, artist, choreographer, inspector-director of the arena);
- staging part (head of staging part, lighting designer, staging workshops);
- engineering and technical part;
- Administrative and economic part (administrators, ticket keepers, cloakroom attendants, cleaners, ticket cashiers, storekeeper, storekeepers, fire-guard);
- functional services (accounting, personnel, supply).

As a rule, contract artists work in the circus (a contract with a length of 1 year). After signing the contract, the artists are assigned a number (stage director, artist, composer, choreographer, etc. work). On the account of the circus, with which the contract was signed, the number goes on for a season and a half, and then the directorate concludes contracts for the artist's performances abroad. If an artist simultaneously tries to perform elsewhere himself, this reduces his income in the main company.

It is important to note that in Russia the circus pays for the preparation of the performance, while abroad - the artist himself (including the artist himself is responsible for damage to the props and costumes).

The circus can be public or private. Many state circuses are part of the Russian Circus structure.

Rosgoscirk is a state circus company, which includes more than 70 enterprises, including:
- 41 stationary circus;
- 11 traveling circus-tent;
- 8 mobile zoo circus.

The Company also includes: 4 directorates of the "Circus on Stage" collectives, 3 "Circus on Ice" collectives, 2 "Circus on the Water", "Lilliputian Circus", "Circus-revue", "Sea Animals Theater", "Unbelievable strange circus "," Golden tour of the Shatirov brothers ".

Despite its scale, Rosgortsirk, in the opinion of professionals, is already an outdated and ineffective phenomenon. It can be assumed that more flexible private circuses can compete with state ones.

Many state circuses, due to suboptimal management, have long been going through hard times.

In general, the circus is a rather profitable business.

The estimated cost of 1 performance in the circus is almost a million rubles. The average salary of an artist for 1 performance is 4500 rubles. The usual capacity of a modern circus is from 3000 seats (in Russian regions- from 2000). The average ticket price is 1000 rubles. Total revenue for the presentation is RUB 3,000,000. Despite the significant costs (maintenance of the building, security, props, keeping animals, feeding, etc.), experts believe that the circus business is quite profitable both for the artists themselves (salary per month from 150,000 rubles) and for owners and management.

Deputy Director General of "Rosgoscirk" spoke about the intricacies of his work

We are used to the circus as an arena, bears on a bicycle, clowns and cotton candy... In fact, all this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here we have our own rebrands, top managers, and even training methods! Boris Maykhrovsky, deputy general director of Rosgoscirk, told about this.

- Is it difficult to be a big boss in a business like a circus?

I will not say that it is difficult, but freelance situations do happen - although, perhaps, like in any other area. By the way, according to the circus tradition, even the big bosses are called "uncle" by the circus performers. Some young artist will come to me now and call "Uncle Borya" - and it will be professional on his part.

- What is especially difficult for you?

The people who work in the circus live by it. It rarely happens here that a person, upon reaching retirement age, goes on a well-deserved rest. One of the big difficulties is to convince a person that he is no longer in the same physical form to perform in the arena. There is no threshold for work. So we are working. There were tragicomic cases. For example, we had one lady who, according to the documents, passed as an acrobat artist. When she turned 80, we started trying to send her to rest. But this acrobat flatly refused to leave and even went to court! When the judge asked her to demonstrate how much she was able to work, she took it and calmly did a somersault. I had to leave her. True, after a while she still left herself.

In general, there are a lot of other things - the budget, programs, even the purchase of makeup - you have to keep track of everything! Now we have about eight thousand employees, 42 branches in different cities, several tent, and about three thousand animals of 140 species are used in programs and zoo circuses. All of these branches have their own programs, posters, tour dates to follow, ticket sales, and so on.

- Tickets to the circus are quite expensive ...

I don’t take Moscow, because it’s a separate topic altogether. In addition, in Moscow we do not have many facilities: for example, the circuses on Tsvetnoy and Vernadsky are not ours. And in the regions we try to make it cheaper. The average ticket price is 500-600 rubles.

- At "Du Soleil", it seems, several times more expensive!

- “Du Soleil” I would not call a circus now. The area they occupy can be called a show program. The circus is where the animals are. This is a mandatory rule. And "Du Soleil" refused from animals, from their training. And from that moment, I believe, they moved into a different quality. Coming to the circus, people, first of all, go to look at animals. If they used to go to Kio and Nikulin, now they go to see tigers and leopards. Even from "Du Soleil" I can say that this is a very serious business - from very high-quality equipment to the school. There, even scripts are written by a whole specially trained team - unlike our artists, most of whom still come up with numbers themselves. In our country, the people who lead the team usually carry the idea themselves.

- If we look at the circus from a business point of view, what top managers could you name?

Zapashny brothers, first of all. Durov, Kornilov. There are several collectives that work on their own rent - they rent space, make posters, pay artists, feed the animals and show their program. The largest such project is just the Zapashny brothers. There is Sergey Nesterov, who has made a wonderful safari program. Circus of Anatoly Sokol - with luminous fountains. This is all very successful people and projects.

The circus is just a business for you. For the rest, it is almost a magical act! How do you manage to "steer" them while maintaining the absolutely necessary sober look?

Good luck! The people I work with here are top-class professionals! They all know their stuff very well! Our general manager has tremendous directing ability and at the same time - a correct understanding of the economic components.

- What is happening in the "Rosgoscirk" now?

Now "Rosgoscirk" is in the stage of rebranding. To be more attractive to our viewers, we decided to bring several innovations to the work. Electronic tickets will soon appear, which can now be bought not only at the box office, but also on the Internet. Will be one e-ticket- we borrowed this practice from cinemas. Sitting in Sochi, it will be possible to buy a ticket for a show in Novosibirsk. Soon there will be a very beautiful new site, where everyone can easily find the nearest circus with a program, repertoire. There will also be new convenient functions for employees - in particular, it will be easier to work with documents, it will be easier to receive a salary. Everything will be centralized. Now everyone will be able to receive a salary on a card, like most Russian employees. This is not the case now. I hope this project will be completed within six months.

In Moscow, perhaps, yes. In the capital, this situation is more modest, because our presence here is not very much. Now we are represented in Brateevo and at the River Station. Soon, hopefully with light hand Mayor Sobyanin's House of the Clown will be built - those who would like to learn the craft will come there. It will also be possible to train there. This House of the Clown will be similar in shape to a big top, but at the same time it will be unlike anything else.

And yet it is very difficult for the layman to combine two images of the circus into one: the one that appears to the audience, and, let's say, the backstage one.

Of course, what is inaccessible to the viewer's eyes is very interesting for them. And sometimes because of this, there are moments that spoil the reputation of the circus. For example, recently came out the series "Princess of the Circus" - just about what is hidden from the audience. But in fact, this has a very mediocre relationship to reality. This is another soap opera, where someone's lost relatives are sure to be, where someone must have amnesia, and so on. But at the same time, the action takes place against the backdrop of the circus and supposedly demonstrates its traditions. All this was done absolutely ignorantly and incorrectly. For example, the trainer will never dine in a cafe, bringing a tiger there! A trainer is a serious profession that takes years and takes a daily risk to your life! And here they show some kind of buffoon.

- You also entered the arena as an artist?

My whole family works in the circus! And I was a clown, a juggler, and a trainer - I worked with sea lions and sea lions. I remember that when I worked, I liked the process of preparing the issue much more than the show itself. It was much more interesting.

- Do training skills help in working with people?

It is always much more difficult with people than with animals. You can't invest your brains in anyone! And you need to see in people what is peculiar to them, what they do well - there is common features with the work of a trainer. Also, I have always tried to avoid punishment, to abandon the "stick" policy. And this also bore fruit. Those who avoid the "stick" discipline are respected more.

- Do you believe in magic yourself?

Of course I believe! You know, a man has three stages: when he believes in Santa Claus, when he does not believe in him, and when he himself becomes Santa Claus. I have already reached this third stage! A lot of pleasant things happen when festivals take place. Last year, together with the Russian Culture Committee and the St. Petersburg Circus, we organized a world festival of circus directing. This year in September will take place V-th World festival circus directing, which we are also organizing. There will be many foreign artists, interesting programs, fresh views ...

- And the last question ...

Oh, how in a circus the word "last" is not liked!

- Exactly! Like parachutists - it's better to say "extreme", right?

Well, at least.

- So what's the right way to go to the circus?

Gather information about which circus you go to, you can even ask for documents. If these are some kind of visiting vagrants, it is better to refrain - it happens that people get not only a boring program for expensive tickets, but also other troubles: a collapse of the roof of this tent, non-observance of safety precautions when working with animals, and so on. And we puff, by the way, then we, trying to prove that this big top has nothing to do with us. Summing up, I will say that it is better to go to a good circus!