Broadway's new revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Blvd. continued its box-office climb last week, bringing in $1.9 million—the production's highest yet, and putting the much coveted $2 Million Club firmly within its sights. The production has been in the headlines recently due to some controversial social media posts from star Nicole Scherzinger, but this new grosses data—the first to be released since the brouhaha—seems to indicate that audiences are still heading to the St. James to catch her Olivier-winning and much-talked-about performance. The West End transfer made that nearly $2-million sum without even selling out—the show played to 95% capacity last week, and still dethroned perennial top grosser The Lion King to be the second highest-grossing show on the boards, beat only by Wicked. As we head into the holidays, we are likely to see Sunset's grosses rise even higher.
But Sunset wasn't the only show to see big gains last week. Maybe Happy Ending, now with the benefit of glowing reviews and increasing word of mouth, saw a steep increase both in its overall gross and its average ticket price. Its weekly take of $458,827, by far the highest of its run, still has lots of room to grow. But hopefully this notable post-opening uptick will be the beginning of a upward trend. Death Becomes Her, still to open later this week, also saw a nice increase in excess of six figures. Part of that is due to the production being forced to cancel two performances the week before this data, but last week's grosses were nevertheless a record high for the new musical that could continue rising after reviews are out, especially because the soon-to-be-open show has been giving out lots of comps to press. Stay tuned.
After Wicked, Sunset Blvd., and The Lion King, the top five was filled out by Hamilton and 2024 Best Musical winner The Outsiders. Lincoln Center Theater's McNeal, which took the sixth spot last week, continues to command the top ticket prices on Broadway with theatregoers paying an average of $181.17 a pop last week to see film star Robert Downey Jr. in the Ayad Akhtar play. It's not often we see plays from non-profits among the highest grossers, but the work's ever timely subject matter, together which this particular bit of star casting, seems to really be doing the trick for LCT.
Cumulatively over Broadway's 37 currently running shows, $35.1 million was brought in, a drop in just under 4% compared to the week prior. That's likely not enough to make anyone worried—we are currently almost 12% ahead for the total season compared to the last, and last week beat the same week last year by almost 30%. Thanksgiving is next week, which traditionally kicks off Broadway's busiest season. Off to the races!
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Wicked ($2.45 million)
- Sunset Blvd.
- The Lion King
- Hamilton
- The Outsiders
- McNeal
- Hell's Kitchen
- MJ The Musical
- Oh, Mary!
- Death Becomes Her
- Aladdin
- The Great Gatsby
- Cabaret
- Romeo and Juliet
(14 of 37 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Romeo and Juliet (102.41%)
- The Outsiders (101.27%)
- McNeal (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Stereophonic
- Suffs
- Death Becomes Her
- Hamilton
- Hadestown
- Sunset Blvd.
- The Lion King
- The Book of Mormon
- Aladdin
- Hell's Kitchen
- Yellow Face
- A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Cabaret
- Elf
(20 of 37 currently running productions)
