Last week saw winter holidays on Broadway, and the box office was buzzing—no surprises there! We saw the last of Broadway's top two highest-grossing weeks last week, bringing in more than $52 million over the 33 currently running shows as we all welcomed in 2026.
That's down from last week, and also from the same week last year. But when the Broadway totals are above $50 million, no one is upset. Last week this year included Christmas, another top-grossing week. And this same week last year itself included Christmas, too, so that would explain the technical "drop" in grosses. We won't know the full post-holiday situation until we get to next week, but we're currently beating the same period last season by 9.8%. That means we can likely expect to remain ahead of last season once we have updated figures—fantastic news, given last season was itself a record-breaking high.
Winter holidays are when we want to see shows doing well, and that was on display. Longtime hit The Lion King reached a new high at the Minskoff, setting an all-time record for an eight-performance week with $3.15 million—an incredible total that somehow still left the Disney musical ranking fourth among Broadway's top grossers. ABBA jukebox favorite Mamma Mia!, back for an encore bow at the Winter Garden, also saw the top gross of its run and even in the hit show's long history, bringing in $2.6 million over a nine-performance week. That let the show close out the top five highest grossers of the week.
Leading that list were usual suspects Hamilton, with $3.33 million; Wicked, with $3.29 million; and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with $3.27 million. Only the latter is a relatively new face to see at the top of the list; the play, inspired by the fan-favorite novel series, currently stars Tom Felton, reprising his iconic screen role as magical bad boy Draco Malfoy.
Broadway has enjoyed a solid holiday season, even as projected tourism trends may spell trouble ahead. We should expect to see a dramatic drop in grosses next week, and it'll look worse than it is in comparison to the same week from last year, which included the New Year's holidays. But we're currently beating last season's historic box office take by nearly 10%, which puts Broadway in an excellent position going into the spring. The wildcard is inventory. There were 33 shows running at the same time last year, the same as today. But high grossers Beetlejuice and Waiting for Godot took their final bows last week, and we can also expect ticket prices to noticeably fall post-holiday.
On the other hand, spring on Broadway has yet to get going in full swing. Bug opens January 8, bringing a title with name recognition and A-list stars (Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood) to the table. The next Broadway opening isn't until March, meaning there may be a long wait for things to ramp up again at the box office. Stay strong, theatre fans. We've got a strong, if ever precarious, Broadway.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Hamilton ($3.33 million)
- Wicked ($3.29 million)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ($3.27 million)
- The Lion King ($3.15 million)
- Mamma Mia! ($2.59 million)
- Aladdin ($2.16 million)
- Stranger Things: The First Shadow ($2 million)
- MJ The Musical
- Chess
- The Outsiders
- Death Becomes Her
- The Great Gatsby
- Just In Time
- Waiting for Godot
- Ragtime
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Beetlejuice
- The Book of Mormon
- Oh, Mary!
- Hadestown
- Buena Vista Social Club
- & Juliet
- Hell's Kitchen
- SIX: The Musical
- Chicago
(26 of 33 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Just in Time (103.08%)
- The Outsiders (102.29%)
- Mamma Mia! (101.95%)
- Maybe Happy Ending (101.9%)
- Hamilton (101.34%)
- Hadestown (101.32%)
- Buena Vista Social Club (100.83%)
- & Juliet (100.32%)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (100%)
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Ragtime (100%)
- Waiting for Godot (100%)
- Wicked (100%)
- The Great Gatsby
- Aladdin
- Chess
- MJ The Musical
- Operation Mincemeat
- The Book of Mormon
- Death Becomes Her
- The Lion King
- Marjorie Prime
- Oedipus
- Hell's Kitchen
- All Out: Comedy About Ambition
- Beetlejuice
- Bug
- SIX: The Musical
(29 of 33 currently running productions)
