Broadway Grosses Analysis: Julie Benko and Lea Michele Close Out Funny Girl as Broadway's Top Grosser | Playbill

Grosses Broadway Grosses Analysis: Julie Benko and Lea Michele Close Out Funny Girl as Broadway's Top Grosser

The revival played its final performance September 3.

Graphic by Vi Dang

Funny Girl was riding high in its final week on Broadway, with leading ladies Julie Benko and Lea Michele playing their final performances to a house record-breaking $2.14 million box office—the highest of any eight-performance week across the revival's entire run.

That total made the revival, which has been a top 10 mainstay since Michele joined last September, the highest-grossing show of the week, beating out even regular top grossers The Lion King and Hamilton. Leading to those numbers were exceptionally high ticket prices for the production's final week, which averaged $252.79 a ticket—and that's not counting the resale markets! Losing no time, the production is set to launch a national tour later this week in Providence, Rhode Island.

The rest of the top five this past week were filled out by The Lion KingHamiltonWicked, and Sweeney Todd, the latter recovering from a dip that accompanied both of its high-profile stars being out with COVID.

Among newer shows on the Main Stem, Back to the Future has fallen a bit from its opening week high of $1.5 million, but not by much. The screen-to-stage musical brought in $1.2 million last week with an average ticket price of $105, likely a sweet spot for the family-friendly show. & Juliet lagged just barely behind that at $1.17 million, another consistent top seller.

Some Like It Hot, whose grosses have varied wildly week to week, unexpectedly saw an increase of 17% despite the absence of its Tony-winning star J. Harrison Ghee, who announced last week that they will be sidelined from the show for at least six weeks as they recover from surgery. Audiences, it would seem, were more than happy to catch the performance from understudy DeMarius R. Copes, who is taking over the role during Ghee's absence.

Overall, grosses fell by close to 5%, which is actually pretty respectable given there were two fewer shows. Attendance fell by less than 3%, with more than 200,000 people attending one of the 23 currently running shows—more than 91% of seats were filled. With average ticket prices holding steady at $124.46, Broadway seems to be enjoying a healthy summer.

Take a look at the full report here.

The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):

(12 of 23 currently running productions)


The 90s Club
(shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):

  • Hamilton (100.7%)
  • Hadestown
  • Sweeney Todd
  • & Juliet
  • The Lion King
  • Back to the Future
  • Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  • Aladdin
  • The Book of Mormon
  • SIX: The Musical
  • MJ The Musical
  • Shucked
  • Wicked

(13 of 23 currently running productions)

 
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!