Broadway Gross Ticket Sales Week Ending December 23, 2007
By Carol-Ann Rudy
This past week saw Broadway ticket sales increase $2,057,888, over the previous reporting period, for total box office revenues of $21,099,860. Partly responsible for that was the 15 percent jump in ticket sales for Chicago and Rent, and an 11 percent increase for Is He Dead?. This, in spite of a precipitous 23 percent drop in sales for Pygmalion.
But there are now six productions in the million-dollar range, and every one of them saw an increase in sales. They are: Wicked, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Lion King, Jersey Boys, The Little Mermaid, and Mary Poppins. Disney executives must be smiling with no less than two productions on Broadway at this time: Mermaid and Lion King.
Of the ten plays, Cyrano de Bergerac has been wowing audiences filled to 94 percent capacity, while Cymbeline is limping along with slightly less than 34 percent attendance this past week and the smallest gross sales of all productions.
Comparing the season to the previous season’s figures, there is currently a 5.5 percent drop in attendance figures, largely due to the stagehands strike in November. That amounts to a difference of $28,608,940 between last year at this time and now. Looking at this past week’s ticket sales of $21,099,860 compared to the same week last season and it’s a different story; ticket sales are up $694,609. But that figure is deceiving; Variety estimates that Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein grossed $1.55 million, so the real number is more like $2 million dollars over the same week last season. The top ticket price continues to be $450 for that production.
Opening for previews is the play November at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Opening Night is set for January 1.
Broadway Gross Ticket Sales Week ending December 23, 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) |
$284,568 | 4,369 | 0 | 8 | 949 | $65.13 | 57.5% |
| A Chorus Line (Schoenfeld) |
$346,161 | 4,690 | 0 | 8 | 1,069 | $73.81 | 54.8% |
| August: Osage County (Imperial) |
$484,101 | 8,079 | 0 | 8 | 1,439 | $59.92 | 70.2% |
| Avenue Q (Golden) |
$320,705 | 4,134 | 0 | 8 | 796 | $77.58 | 64.9% |
| Chicago (Ambassador) |
$457,866 | 6,249 | 0 | 7 | 1,080 | $73.27 | 82.7% |
| Curtains (Hirschfeld) |
$514,481 | 6,960 | 0 | 8 | 1,422 | $73.92 | 61.2% |
| Cymbeline (Beaumont) |
$167,249 | 2,908 | 0 | 8 | 1,047 | $57.51 | 34.7% |
| Cyrano de Bergerac (Rodgers) |
$944,747 | 10,160 | 0 | 8 | 1,347 | $92.99 | 94.3% |
| Dr. Seuss’…Christmas (St. James) |
$1,645,221 | 19,982 | 0 | 15 | 1,706 | $82.34 | 78.1% |
| Grease (Atkinson) |
$706,196 | 6,859 | 0 | 8 | 1,072 | $102.96 | 80.0% |
| Hairspray (Neil Simon) |
$722,977 | 8,891 | 0 | 8 | 1,428 | $81.32 | 77.8% |
| Is He Dead? (Lyceum) |
$223,732 | 4,936 | 0 | 8 | 922 | $45.33 | 66.9% |
| Jersey Boys (August Wilson) |
$1,263,193 | 9,803 | 0 | 8 | 1,222 | $128.86 | 100.3% |
| Legally Blonde (Palace) |
$687,767 | 8,840 | 0 | 8 | 1,691 | $77.80 | 65.3% |
| Les Miserables (Broadhurst) |
$657,147 | 8,529 | 0 | 8 | 1,122 | $77.05 | 95.0% |
| Mamma Mia! (Cadillac Winter Garden) |
$844,834 | 10,604 | 0 | 8 | 1,498 | $79.67 | 88.5% |
| Mary Poppins (New Amsterdam) |
$1,141,646 | 12,878 | 0 | 8 | 1,791 | $88.65 | 89.9% |
| Pygmalion (American Airlines) |
$266,490 | 4,082 | 6 | 0 | 1,058 | $65.28 | 64.3% |
| Rent (Nederlander) |
$322,344 | 5,466 | 0 | 8 | 1,181 | $58.97 | 57.9% |
| Rock ‘n’ Roll (Jacobs) |
$446,104 | 6,339 | 0 | 8 | 1,074 | $70.37 | 73.8% |
| Spamalot (Shubert) |
$774,732 | 10,200 | 0 | 8 | 1,441 | $75.95 | 88.5% |
| Spring Awakening (O’Neill) |
$547,811 | 6,609 | 0 | 7 | 1,090 | $82.89 | 86.6% |
| The 25th…Bee (Circle in Square) |
$227,608 | 3,873 | 0 | 8 | 684 | $58.77 | 70.8% |
| The Color Purple (Broadway) |
$695,264 | 10,561 | 0 | 8 | 1,718 | $65.83 | 76.8% |
| The Drowsy Chaperone (Marquis) |
$399,531 | 6,856 | 0 | 8 | 1,611 | $58.27 | 53.2% |
| The Farnsworth Invention (Music Box) |
$284,259 | 4,254 | 0 | 8 | 1,005 | $66.82 | 52.9% |
| The Homecoming (Cort) |
$247,572 | 4,394 | 0 | 8 | 1,082 | $56.34 | 50.8% |
| The Lion King (Minskoff) |
$1,361,604 | 12,694 | 0 | 8 | 1,654 | $107.26 | 95.9% |
| The Little Mermaid (Lunt-Fontanne) |
$1,183,665 | 11,994 | 8 | 0 | 1,503 | $98.69 | 99.8% |
| The Phantom of the Opera (Majestic) |
$747,878 | 10,151 | 0 | 8 | 1,607 | $73.68 | 79.0% |
| The Seafarer (Booth) |
$274,489 | 4,892 | 0 | 8 | 780 | $56.11 | 78.4% |
| Wicked (Gershwin) |
$1,707,129 | 14,472 | 0 | 8 | 1,809 | $117.96 | 100.0% |
| Xanadu (Hayes) |
$200,789 | 2,622 | 0 | 8 | 596 | $76.58 | 55.0% |
