Grosses fell across Broadway by more than 8% last week, dropping to a cumulative total of $33.88 million from the week prior's $36.97—and that's with three additional shows. But then we are in a moment of hibernation in the Broadway life cycle, all waiting for Thanksgiving to arrive, and with it the winter holiday tourist boom. And it's already November, so that's just around the corner.
The good news—kind of—is that attendance was actually up slightly compared to the week prior, by 255 people. When you factor in the three additional shows theatregoers had to choose from, that's less positive. But that data point exists to show that the real reason numbers are down is ticket prices. The 277,506 tickets sold last week were sold at an average of $122, down from $133 the week previous. And regardless of the total amount of bodies, theatres were cumulatively more-than 85% full last week, and that's not bad.
We're just currently awaiting an influx in traffic. And to be prepared for that, Broadway has lots of new shows on the boards. Five shows were in previews last week, and two freshly opened. That means seven shows that have had less time to build word-of-mouth, and, more importantly, are likely comping in lots of press and other audience members to help build said word-of-mouth. All of which is to say—lines are pointing down, but that's to be expected here at the beginning of November. We hope all of your Halloween plans were fantastic, and we hope you spend this week seeing more theatre.
As tends to be the case in weeks such as these, the list of top winners looked much like most recent weeks. The top five highest grossers were Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, Chess, and Waiting for Godot—that two of those are productions brand new as of this season is quite the coup as we look to best last season's record-breaking take. Fellow newcomers making continued strong shows at the box office: Mamma Mia! and Ragtime.
The drop in grosses forced an accompanying drop in said besting of last season—this period so far has now beat the same stretch of time in last season by less than 10%, 9.87% to be exact. But again, that's still an increase, which is great. And once we get the winter holidays under our belt, we're very likely to send that number upward where we'd like it to be.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Hamilton ($3.43 million)
- Wicked ($2 million)
- The Lion King
- Chess
- Waiting for Godot
- Art
- Mamma Mia!
- Just in Time
- Ragtime
- MJ The Musical
- Oh, Mary!
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Death Becomes Her
(13 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 (101.34%)
- Hamilton (101.32%)
- Oedipus (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Ragtime (100%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Waiting for Godot
- Art
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Hadestown
- Mamma Mia!
- Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
- Maybe Happy Ending
- The Lion King
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Chess
- Death Becomes Her
(17 of 35 currently running productions)
