20-Year Prospect
There's no business like show business, but the question is, can it stay in business? After all, while Broadway revenue is still in the millions of dollars a week, those millions are coming from fewer and fewer people.
It's gotten to the point where taking a family of four out for a night of theater can cost upwards of $300—and that doesn't include parking, programs, or popcorn. This may be why the average theater-goer comes from a household earning a whopping $200,000 a year (source).
Will Broadway forever be a place of poor performers, rich audience members, and basically nothing in between? Or will ticket prices drop to a more reasonable amount to allow a broader audience?
It may be too soon to say, but as long as Netflix and other services make it more difficult to leave the couch, we wouldn't be shocked to see Broadway start streaming its shows. After all, they've already started putting them on national TV.
We can say with a fair amount of certainty that this field will be around for quite some time, but it may get a little harder to break into twenty years down the road.