Well, they'd been teetering close to it for weeks, but they finally did it: Good Night, And Good Luck joined The $4 Million Club last week, the first-ever non-musical play to do so. The achievement also again breaks the production's record for the highest-grossing single week for a play on Broadway ever. The performance bests even that of high-grossing former Winter Garden Theatre tenant The Music Man—a musical! And starring Hugh Jackman! It's even the top-grossing week for any single production in the history of The Shubert Organization.
The performance—which is not exactly new, as the play has been pretty firmly parked atop the list of top grossers since its run began—puts audience dollars at odds with the Tony Awards Nomination Committee. The play picked up nods for its physical design elements plus a Best Leading Actor in a Play for star and co-writer George Clooney last week, but the title failed to get recognition in the coveted Best Play category, and ditto Best Director for David Cromer. I suppose producers can dry any tears there with a fresh stack of cash.
Speaking of Tony Awards, there doesn't seem to be any perceivable impact from last week's Tony nominations yet. This latest data from last week only reflects five (or less for some shows) performances that happened after the nominations dropped. Add that to the fact that we're still in a period where lots of shows are comping in press, and now Tony voters, and this becomes a difficult trend to follow. Just in Time, which picked up a respectable six nominations while notably being left off the list of contenders for Best Musical, saw the most extreme boost at the box office compared to the week previous, to the tune of $213,493. And while that's nothing to dismiss, that is likely mostly due to less press comping post opening—the musical's average paid ticket price jumped from $160 to almost $200, which says a lot about that situation.
In fact, just about all that changed last week is that the star-driven plays that have already been sitting atop the top grossers for weeks just strengthened their chokehold on Broadway. Good Night, and Good Luck, Othello, and Glengarry Glen Ross all out-grossed even high performers Wicked and The Lion King to take all three of the top spots last week, almost assuredly a first in modern Broadway history for straight plays. That Othello was the second highest grosser last week with receipts in excess of $3 million just tells you what a bonanza these plays have been bringing to Broadway. And don't worry too much for Wicked and The Lion King's dethroning. The former handily made The $2 Million Club, and The Lion King was just $271 shy of doing so itself.
Now compare that to the fact that grosses overall on Broadway actually continued to fall last week compared to the week previous, this time by just over 8%. Attendance was down by just under 4%, which means a $6 drop in average paid ticket prices can probably account for at least half of that difference. And as already mentioned, much of that is likely due to the large amount of free tickets being passed around as shows open and begin wooing Tony voters. It's hardly bad performance for Broadway, anyway, with average ticket price remaining at a steady $129.39, capacity at a cumulative 88%, and $43 million coming in to box offices. With two weeks of the season left to go, we are beating the same period from last season by almost 24%, and that's cause for major celebration, as it has been for weeks now.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Good Night and Good Luck ($4 million)
- Othello ($3.07 million)
- Glengarry Glen Ross ($2.33 million)
- Wicked ($2.23 million)
- The Lion King
- Hamilton
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Aladdin
- MJ The Musical
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- The Outsiders
- Just in Time
- Gypsy
- Death Becomes Her
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Oh, Mary!
- Sunset Boulevard
(17 of 40 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Just in Time (103.35%)
- Good Night, and Good Luck (101.95%)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (100.53%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Othello (100%)
- Oh, Mary!
- The Outsiders
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
- The Lion King
- John Proctor is the Villain
- Operation Mincemeat
- Pirates! The Penzance Musical
- Hamilton
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Aladdin
- & Juliet
- Hadestown
- Purpose
(21 of 40 currently running productions)
