Broadway ticket sales were up in most theatres for the week ending May 18, just in time for the announcement of the Tony Award nominees. Total box office receipts reached $20,332,996, an increase over the previous reporting period of $18,736,548 and in line with the same period in 2007 of $20,736,201. The difference in gross receipts between this year and last year currently remains a steady 4.5 percent lower for this season. It is not likely, due to the strike last fall, to ever catch up.
The biggest draw this past week was Wicked once again, The Lion King, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia! and The Little Mermaid. Figures for Young Frankenstein are not available. Of the ten plays currently on Broadway, MacBeth is enjoying almost 100 percent full houses followed by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The biggest gain in attendance is seen in Avenue Q, up 22 percent from the previous week and followed closely by Top Girls. No production posted a drop in attendance of more than 1.5 percent.
Besides improved ticket sales, the other big news on Broadway for the week was the announcement of the Tony Award nominees. In addition, the winners of the Drama Desk, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Obie, Pulitzer Prize and Theatre World Awards were also announced as well. Last week, the 58th Annual Outer Critics’ Circle and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle heralded their roster of winners. Who were the biggest winners of all? The audiences of course, but August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize for Drama, NY Drama Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League) appears to have garnered the most honors so far, including seven Tony nominations. However, In the Heights has received the largest number of Tony nominations of any production with 13 total.
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Broadway Gross Ticket Sales
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| Production (Theatre) |
Weekly Gross | Total Atten. | Prev. | Perf. | Total Capacity | Avg. Ticket Price | Atten. % |
| A Catered Affair (Kerr) |
$439,329 | 6,040 | 0 | 8 | 933 | $72.74 | 80.9% |
| A Chorus Line (Schoenfeld) |
$335,752 | 5,312 | 0 | 8 | 1,069 | $63.21 | 62.1% |
| August: Osage County (Music Box) |
$436,388 | 6,143 | 0 | 8 | 979 | $71.04 | 78.4% |
| Avenue Q (Golden) |
$319,510 | 4,957 | 0 | 8 | 796 | $64.46 | 77.8% |
| Boeing-Boeing (Longacre) |
$359,793 | 6,320 | 0 | 8 | 1,077 | $56.93 | 73.4% |
| Cat…Roof (Broadhurst) |
$651,472 | 8,509 | 0 | 8 | 1,168 | $76.56 | 91.1% |
| Chicago (Ambassador) |
$511,729 | 7,252 | 0 | 8 | 1,080 | $70.56 | 83.9% |
| Cry-Baby (Marquis) |
$347,297 | 9,075 | 0 | 8 | 1,611 | $38.27 | 70.4% |
| Curtains (Hirschfeld) |
$563,824 | 7,774 | 0 | 8 | 1,422 | $72.53 | 68.3% |
| Grease (Atkinson) |
$624,587 | 7,944 | 0 | 8 | 1,072 | $78.62 | 92.6% |
| Gypsy (St. James) |
$835,697 | 10,044 | 0 | 8 | 1,707 | $83.20 | 73.6% |
| Hairspray (Neil Simon) |
$657,042 | 10,111 | 0 | 8 | 1,428 | $64.98 | 88.5% |
| In the Heights (Rodgers) |
$650,504 | 9,152 | 0 | 8 | 1,344 | $71.08 | 85.1% |
| Jersey Boys (August Wilson) |
$1,163,619 | 9,843 | 0 | 8 | 1,222 | $118.22 | 100.7% |
| Legally Blonde (Palace) |
$588,736 | 9,460 | 0 | 8 | 1,691 | $62.23 | 69.9% |
| Les Liaisons Dangereuses (American Airlines) |
$266,917 | 5,272 | 0 | 8 | 740 | $50.63 | 89.1% |
| Macbeth (Lyceum) |
$618,354 | 7,145 | 0 | 8 | 910 | $86.54 | 98.1% |
| Mamma Mia! (Winter Garden) |
$966,801 | 11,752 | 0 | 8 | 1,498 | $82.27 | 98.1% |
| Mary Poppins (New Amsterdam) |
$845,936 | 12,957 | 0 | 8 | 1,797 | $65.29 | 90.1% |
| November (Barrymore) |
$319,421 | 4,430 | 0 | 8 | 1,058 | $72.10 | 52.3% |
| Passing Strange (Belasco) |
$256,680 | 4,719 | 0 | 8 | 998 | $54.39 | 59.1% |
| Rent (Nederlander) |
$525,230 | 7,996 | 0 | 8 | 1,181 | $65.69 | 84.6% |
| South Pacific (Beaumont) |
$704,978 | 8,108 | 0 | 8 | 1,041 | $86.95 | 97.4% |
| Spamalot (Shubert) |
$614,070 | 8,833 | 0 | 8 | 1,441 | $69.52 | 76.6% |
| Spring Awakening (O’Neill) |
$562,435 | 7,333 | 0 | 8 | 1,090 | $76.70 | 84.1% |
| Sunday…George (Studio 54) |
$346,369 | 6,298 | 0 | 8 | 1,004 | $55.00 | 78.4% |
| The 39 Steps (Cort) |
$259,087 | 5,153 | 0 | 8 | 787 | $50.28 | 81.8% |
| The Country Girl (Jacobs) |
$478,108 | 5,999 | 0 | 8 | 1,103 | $79.70 | 68.0% |
| The Lion King (Minskoff) |
$1,221,435 | 13,112 | 0 | 8 | 1,654 | $93.15 | 99.1% |
| The Little Mermaid (Lunt-Fontanne) |
$924,670 | 11,060 | 0 | 8 | 1,518 | $83.60 | 91.1% |
| The Phantom of the Opera (Majestic) |
$774,700 | 12,145 | 0 | 8 | 1,607 | $63.79 | 94.5% |
| Thurgood (Booth) |
$258,739 | 4,694 | 0 | 8 | 780 | $55.12 | 75.2% |
| Top Girls (Biltmore) |
$229,081 | 4,033 | 0 | 8 | 650 | $56.80 | 77.6% |
| Wicked (Gershwin) |
$1,446,047 | 14,472 | 0 | 8 | 1,809 | $99.92 | 100.0% |
| Xanadu (Hayes) |
$228,658 | 3,294 | 0 | 8 | 596 | $69.42 | 69.1% |
All data provided by The Broadway League
