Those mathematicians at the New York Times got out their abacuses (abaci?) and figured out just how much a Tony win is worth for a Broadway musical. You'd think that the least watched of all awards shows wouldn't make a huge impact—-and you would be wrong.

The paper looked at the average weekly gross of all four Best Musical nominees last year and found that while every production got a bump right before and right after the awards show, only the winner saw a lasting benefit from the win. Memphis, last year's winner (but you totally knew that, didn't you?), saw its weekly gross climb almost 50% from $626,309 to $932,456. That means the award was worth $306,147. That may not see like a lot, but that's per week. Those babies add up. This past week the show grossed $688, 624, which is still above its pre-Tony average (and down from the more than $800K it grossed the week before).

Tallies of other musicals from 2000-2009 also saw a 48% increase in weekly gross. That means a Tony is worth, well, a shitload of money. Sure, an Oscar win is worth about $34 million, but since a Broadway show can have a much longer shelf life, it means the stakes at even higher at Sunday's awards ceremonies. That still won't make you watch them, though, will it?

[Image via Getty]