Last Sunday was post-Tonys Black Sunday for Broadway, with the boards saying goodbye to Dead Outlaw, Real Women Have Curves, Glengarry Glen Ross, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (though it bares mentioning that those last three were all finishing extended limited runs as previously announced). Theatregoers rushing to get one last chance to see those shows took the capacity over 90% for all five, and for some of those, that was among the highest the show saw its entire run.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, which featured a tour de force and Tony-winning performance from Sarah Snook, was the biggest winner of the week. It was standing room only at the Music Box, with 8,074 theatregoers taking the capacity to 101.43% for the solo play's final performances. They paid for that privilege, too—thanks to an average ticket price of $259.11 (by far the highest of its run), the production brought in $2.09 million, also the highest of its entire run.
That made the show the third highest-grossing production on Broadway last week, taking us back to another week of a multi-play top five on the Main Stem (a rarity that has become remarkably less rare in recent weeks with star-driven straight plays like Othello and Good Night, and Good Luck). Wicked kept its No. 1 spot with $2.44 million, followed by Glengarry Glen Ross with $2.23 million, Dorian Gray, The Lion King with $2.07 million, and Hamilton with $1.94 million.
Cumulatively, fortunes fell on Broadway last week by just under 9%. That's not super surprising, and is something we can expect to continue in the weeks ahead. We were down three shows last week compared to the week prior (two of which were reliable top grossers), and next week's numbers will have five less. Even if all currently running titles do fabulous at the box office, we can expect a fairly steep drop for Broadway on the whole, particularly with the loss of audience favorites Glengarry Glen Ross and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The real reason that this isn't very bad news is that average ticket price held almost exactly steady, coming in at $131.70 last week from 298,509 tickets sold. And 91.26% of seats were filled across the 35 currently running plays and musicals, so it's not as if Broadway's offerings are going to waste! We've had some post-Tonys losses, but the Tony winners—plus some top-grossing Tony losers—seem to be giving Broadway a pretty profitable summer.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Wicked ($2.44 million)
- Glengarry Glen Ross ($2.23 million)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray ($2.09 million)
- The Lion King ($2.07 million)
- Hamilton
- Sunset Blvd.
- Aladdin
- Death Becomes Her
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Just in Time
- Buena Vista Social Club
- The Outsiders
- Oh, Mary!
- MJ The Musical
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Stranger Things: The First Shadow
(16 of 35 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Just in Time (102.83%)
- Maybe Happy Ending (102.49%)
- John Proctor is the Villain (102.48%)
- The Outsiders (101.95%)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (101.43%)
- Hamilton (101.09%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Wicked (100%)
- The Lion King
- Hadestown
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Operation Mincemeat
- Purpose
- & Juliet
- Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
- Sunset Blvd.
- Aladdin
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Death Becomes Her
- The Book of Mormon
- Dead Outlaw
- Real Women Have Curves
- Cabaret
(23 of 35 currently running productions)
