Broadway Ticket Sales Report Week ending November 4, 2007

By Carol-Ann Rudy

A new report released this week by The League of American Theatres and Producers for the 2006-07 season brings a prediction of a bright holiday season for ticket brokers. It is based on data gleaned from 5,109 surveys completed by Broadway audiences.

According to the report, the use of the Internet for ticket purchases has grown by 368 percent since the 1999-00 season, with online purchases being the most popular method of buying tickets for the second year in a row. Only 11 percent of theatergoers in the survey said they bought their tickets by telephone, another 20 percent purchased tickets directly from the box office, and 27 percent bought tickets on the day of the performance.

Looking at last week’s top performing productions, once again it’s Wicked in the lead, followed by Jersey Boys and The Lion King. Box office sales for Curtains dropped 17 percent, Hairspray 12 percent, Mary Poppins 17 percent, and Xanadu almost 15 percent. On a happier note, Rent was up more than 9 percent and Cyrano de Bergerac by about 7 percent.

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Of the thirty-four productions currently on Broadway, ten are plays. The Seafarer at the Booth Theatre is faring the least well of any play or musical, with little more than 36 percent attendance, but it’s early yet.

OPENING NIGHTS:
Cyrano de Bergerac at the Rogers Theatre, Nov. 1
Rock ‘N’ Roll at the Jacobs Theatre, Nov. 4

IN PREVIEWS:
Young Frankenstein at the Hilton
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! at the St. James
The Farnsworth Invention at the Music Box
The Seafarer at the Booth
August: Osage County at the Imperial
Cymbeline at the Vivian Beaumont
The Little Mermaid at the Lunt-Fontanne

Broadway Gross Reports, November 4, 2007
All data provided by The League of American Theatres and Producers

Production
(Theatre)
Weekly Gross Total Atten. Prev. Perf. Total Capacity Avg. Ticket Price Atten. %
               
A Bronx Tale
(Walter Kerr)
$315,143 4,738 0 7 947 $66.51 71.5%
A Chorus Line
(Schoenfeld)
$420,414 6,322 0 8 1,069 $66.50 73.9%
August: Osage County
(Imperial)
$198,575 4,652 8 0 1,439 $42.69 40.4%
Avenue Q
(Golden)
$321,143 4,940 0 8 796 $65.01 77.6%
Chicago
(Ambassador)
$480,581 6,815 0 8 1,080 $70.52 78.9%
Curtains
(Hirschfeld)
$584,216 7,740 0 8 1,422 $75.48 68.0%
Cymbeline
(Beaumont)
$97,663 2,429 4 0 1,057 $40.21 57.5%
Cyrano de Bergerac
(Rogers)
$663,399 9,528 2 6 1,347 $69.63 88.4%
Dr. Seuss’…Christmas
(St. James)
$465,658 10,255 9 0 1,706 $45.41 66.8%
Grease
(Atkinson)
$685,136 7,214 0 8 1,072 $94.97 84.1%
Hairspray
(Neil Simon)
$669,778 9,233 0 8 1,428 $72.54 80.8%
Jersey Boys
(August Wilson)
$1,217,333 9,850 0 8 1,222 $123.59 100.8%
Legally Blonde
(Palace)
$637,707 10,532 0 8 1,691 $60.55 77.9%
Les Miserables
(Broadhurst)
$408,335 6,609 0 8 1,122 $61.78 73.6%
Mamma Mia!
(Cadillac Winter Garden)
$880,667 10,764 0 8 1,498 $81.82 89.8%
Mary Poppins
(New Amsterdam)
$849,121 10,372 0 8 1,791 $81.87 72.4%
Mauritius
(Biltmore)
$208,776 3,746 0 8 650 $55.73 72.0%
Pygmalion
(American Airlines)
$286,310 5,409 0 8 740 $52.93 91.4%
Rent
(Nederlander)
$256,182 5,847 0 8 1,181 $43.81 61.9%
Rock ‘n’ Roll
(Jacobs)
$383,984 6,573 7 1 1,074 $58.42 76.5%
Spamalot
(Shubert)
$605,393 8,619 0 8 1,441 $70.24 74.8%
Spring Awakening
(O’Neill)
$620,110 7,392 0 8 1,090 $83.89 84.8%
The 25th…Bee
(Circle in Square)
$198,558 3,762 0 8 684 $52.78 68.8%
The Color Purple
(Broadway)
$795,211 11,335 0 8 1,718 $70.16 82.5%
The Drowsy Chaperone
(Marquis)
$369,051 6,673 0 8 1,611 $55.31 51.8%
The Farnsworth Invention
(Music Box)
$260,240 5,019 8 0 1,005 $51.85 62.4%
The Lion King
(Minskoff)
$1,093,694 12,279 0 8 1,654 $89.07 92.8%
The Little Mermaid
(Lunt-Fontanne)
$262,201 3,008 2 0 1,504 $87.17 100.0%
The Phantom of the Opera
(Majestic)
$634,883 9,907 0 8 1,607 $64.08 77.1%
The Ritz
(Studio 54)
$253,365 5,436 0 8 1,006 $46.61 67.5%
The Seafarer
(Booth)
$91,379 1,999 7 0 780 $45.71 36.6%
Wicked
(Gershwin)
$1,335,757 14,456 0 8 1,809 $92.40 99.9%
Xanadu
(Hayes)
$204,196 2,631 0 8 596 $77.61 55.2%
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