Tony-winning original Hamilton star Leslie Odom, Jr. returned to the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical at the Richard Rodgers last week, and brought back the show's astronomic grosses along for the ride. The show was far and away the highest grossing on the Main Stem last week, bringing in $3.8 million, which is thanks to an average ticket price of $352 and a top ticket price of $1,200. If you want to be in the room where it happens, be ready to pay for it!
Luckily, most fortunes rose on Broadway last week, with the Main Stem seeing a nearly 20% increase in grosses cumulatively across the 28 currently running shows, compared to the week previous. Last week also saw the return of Broadway Week, which combats a traditionally slow tourism period in the fall by offering those who are here two-for-one tickets to many shows. Even with those cost savings, the scheme no doubt played a large role in the dramatic uptick in Broadway receipts. There was a nearly 10% increase in the percentage of seats that were filled across all houses, and a nearly-12% increase in the amount of people seeing shows. In other words, for the part of the Broadway life cycle in which we currently find ourselves, we're doing pretty great.
Also hitting with audiences: star-driven plays. The newest offering in that trend—a Waiting for Godot revival, led by Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure screen stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter—proved that the scheme continues to drive ticket prices. The revival only gave one single preview at the Hudson Theatre, but that preview played to a sold-out house that had paid an average of $377 to be there. Special thanks, of course, has to go to the top ticket price of $599. Party on, dude—but like, trust-fund dudes.
If the revival translates that one-preview performance into a full eight-performance week, it would be bringing in a sum just shy of $3 million, which would make it Broadway's latest mega hit (consider the running cost of a Hamilton versus Waiting for Godot's company of eight and no orchestra or major set changes). And it comes on the heels of this week's opening of the similarly star-led Art. That revival—starring Bobby Cannavale, Neil Patrick Harris, and James Corden—brought in $1.35 million last week with an average ticket price of $170. That's a fantastic performance—the sixth-highest of any show last week—but keep in mind those receipts are with lots of seats being comped for press as the show heads to its opening night tonight. We can expect those figures to go up when all seats are being filled by paying customers.
All in all, there's lots to be excited about looking at this week's numbers. We always expect the long-running stalwarts to do well (the top five were Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, and Death Becomes Her), but some of our season's newest are making fabulous showings, too. That has the makings of a wonderful fall—and that should be music to Broadway's ears.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Hamilton ($3.8 million)
- Wicked ($2 million)
- The Lion King
- Mamma Mia!
- Death Becomes Her
- Art
- Just in Time
- Maybe Happy Ending
- MJ The Musical
- Oh, Mary!
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Aladdin
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- The Outsiders
(14 of 28 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Just in Time (103.48%)
- Hamilton (101.27%)
- Mamma Mia! (100.79%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Waiting for Godot (100%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Art
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Death Becomes Her
- The Lion King
- Operation Mincemeat
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- The Book of Mormon
- The Outsiders
- Aladdin
- Hadestown
- Cabaret
- MJ The Musical
- & Juliet
(20 of 28 currently running productions)
