Broadway seems to be delivering new show after new show that audiences are really eager about seeing! Death Becomes Her, now in previews at the Lunt-Fontanne, joined The $1 Million Club in its first full week of performances. Even more encouraging, the screen-to-stage musical achieved that with an average ticket price of just $104.94. That leaves lots of room for the show to really climb the charts as demand rises, and the almost 1,500-seat Lunt-Fontanne is the perfect theatre for that to be happening.
Further on up that list of top grossers is the buzzy new revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Blvd., starring former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, which seems to be turning into one of Broadway's newest top hits. The Jamie Lloyd-directed production made the top five for the second week in a row last week, bringing in $1.72 million. The show played to just under 95% full houses at an average ticket price of $142. Both of those figures have room to grow as positive word of mouth continues to spread, and, of course, the impending holiday season will bring a boost as well. That means we will likely be seeing the show regularly in the much-coveted $2 Million Club sooner rather than later.
Overall, grosses actually fell by almost 3% over the 36 shows currently on the boards. But that figure is nothing to worry about, only more so because Halloween fell during this data set. The spooky holiday famously can see some of the lowest attendance the entire year, with people out trick or treating instead of catching a show. Pro-tip: if you'd rather be watching a Broadway show, this phenomenon makes October 31 the perfect opportunity to snag a hot ticket at an oftentimes discount price. Perhaps that's why we saw attendance actually go up (just by a little, 0.14%) while the average ticket price went down ($115 compared to the previous week's $119).
Attendance continues to be pretty solid across Broadway, with almost 86% of seats filled across all 36 shows. Romeo and Juliet and The Outsiders both played to standing-room-only crows, with McNeal and Oh, Mary! both completely selling out. That also seems to indicate that audiences have an unusually strong appetite for plays this season, particularly with big stars leading the cast. Of those four sell-outs, only one, The Outsiders, is a musical. 2024 Best Play Tony winner Stereophonic is also consistently filling seats—the Golden was 94% full last week.
There's lots of reasons to have a rosy outlook on Broadway's upcoming winter. Even with Broadway's cumulative box office slightly down, that number reflects several new productions that played incomplete weeks, and/or were comping press. Add the reviews and audience word of mouth that tends to only start kicking in after opening night, and we're liable to see attendance go up along with ticket prices before we know it.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Wicked ($2.3 million)
- The Lion King
- Sunset Blvd.
- Hamilton
- MJ The Musical
- McNeal
- The Outsiders
- Hell's Kitchen
- Aladdin
- Oh, Mary!
- Death Becomes Her
- Romeo and Juliet
(12 of 36 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Romeo and Juliet (102.39%)
- The Outsiders (100.89%)
- McNeal (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Wicked
- The Lion King
- Death Becomes Her
- Hamilton
- Sunset Blvd.
- Hell's Kitchen
- Suffs
- Stereophonic
- Aladdin
- MJ The Musical
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Hadestown
- The Book of Mormon
(17 of 36 currently running productions)
