In what has been a bit of an up-and-down season, it’s great to see a continuing growth in the numbers on Broadway for the week ending May 25, in terrific productions, attendance, and dollars. This past week’s box office was $20,770,363, almost a match for the same period last year of $20,922,895 and a jump of $437,367 over the previous reporting period. Currently, there are 36 shows on the Great White Way, 10 of which are enjoying close to 100 percent capacity.
According to The Broadway League, despite the stagehands strike and periodically soft sales, gross ticket revenues nearly reached $1 billion for the 2007-08 season, which ran from May 28, 2007 through May 25, 2008. Ticket sales for the season were $937.5 million, off only slightly from the previous year’s gross tally of $938.5 million.
“While we are disappointed that we didn’t exceed last year’s record-breaking season, we are confident that in the coming season, with such big name shows on the horizon as ‘Billy Elliot,’ ‘Shrek,’ ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Equus,’ to only name a few, that we will have the best season in recorded history,” said Charlotte St. Martin, the League’s executive director. Without the strike, the League believes ticket sales could have reached $975 million for the season.
The five top-grossing productions for the week in order are: Wicked, The Lion King , Jersey Boys, The Little Mermaid, and Mamma Mia! It will be interesting to see what, if any, effect the new movie production of “Mamma Mia!” will have on attendance and ticket sales for the stage show. Not to be overlooked, of the ten plays currently running on Broadway, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the highest grossing at $722,183 with almost 100 percent capacity attendance followed closely by “MacBeth,” which closed May 24 and also played to capacity crowds and generated $584,033 last week.
Interestingly, there are no shows in previews at this time on Broadway. Young Frankenstein is still not reporting revenues and it’s not the highest ticket in town either. That distinction belongs to “Jersey Boys” at $351.50.
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) |
$420,055 | 5,991 | 0 | 8 | 933 | $70.11 | 80.3% |
| A Chorus Line (Schoenfeld) |
$382,037 | 5,938 | 0 | 8 | 1,069 | $64.34 | 69.4% |
| August: Osage County (Music Box) |
$459,493 | 6,172 | 0 | 8 | 979 | $74.45 | 78.8% |
| Avenue Q (Golden) |
$331,361 | 5,148 | 0 | 8 | 796 | $64.37 | 80.8% |
| Boeing-Boeing (Longacre) |
$381,175 | 6,378 | 0 | 8 | 1,077 | $59.76 | 74.0% |
| Cat…Roof (Broadhurst) |
$722,183 | 9,142 | 0 | 8 | 1,168 | $79.00 | 97.8% |
| Chicago (Ambassador) |
$554,731 | 7,799 | 0 | 8 | 1,080 | $71.13 | 90.3% |
| Cry-Baby (Marquis) |
$331,709 | 8,840 | 0 | 8 | 1,611 | $37.52 | 68.6% |
| Curtains (Hirschfeld) |
$556,003 | 8,015 | 0 | 8 | 1,422 | $69.37 | 70.5% |
| Grease (Atkinson) |
$686,113 | 8,287 | 0 | 8 | 1,072 | $82.79 | 96.6% |
| Gypsy (St. James) |
$811,787 | 10,080 | 0 | 8 | 1,707 | $80.53 | 73.8% |
| Hairspray (Neil Simon) |
$679,198 | 9,892 | 0 | 8 | 1,428 | $68.66 | 86.6% |
| In the Heights (Rodgers) |
$733,183 | 9,859 | 0 | 8 | 1,344 | $74.37 | 91.7% |
| Jersey Boys (August Wilson) |
$1,166,539 | 9,851 | 0 | 8 | 1,222 | $118.42 | 100.8% |
| Legally Blonde (Palace) |
$564,553 | 8,923 | 0 | 8 | 1,691 | $63.27 | 66.0% |
| Les Liaisons Dangereuses (American Airlines) |
$264,034 | 5,189 | 0 | 8 | 740 | $50.88 | 87.7% |
| Macbeth (Lyceum) |
$584,033 | 6,253 | 0 | 7 | 910 | $93.40 | 98.2% |
| Mamma Mia! (Winter Garden) |
$948,668 | 11,779 | 0 | 8 | 1,498 | $80.54 | 98.3% |
| Mary Poppins (New Amsterdam) |
$838,770 | 13,382 | 0 | 8 | 1,797 | $62.68 | 93.1% |
| November (Barrymore) |
$286,173 | 4,325 | 0 | 8 | 1,058 | $66.17 | 51.1% |
| Passing Strange (Belasco) |
$280,592 | 5,352 | 0 | 8 | 998 | $52.43 | 67.0% |
| Rent (Nederlander) |
$581,727 | 8,530 | 0 | 8 | 1,181 | $68.20 | 90.3% |
| South Pacific (Beaumont) |
$753,648 | 8,110 | 0 | 8 | 1,041 | $92.93 | 97.4% |
| Spamalot (Shubert) |
$664,497 | 9,736 | 0 | 8 | 1,441 | $68.25 | 84.5% |
| Spring Awakening (O’Neill) |
$474,917 | 6,832 | 0 | 8 | 1,090 | $69.51 | 78.3% |
| Sunday…George (Studio 54) |
$357,110 | 6,110 | 0 | 8 | 1,004 | $58.45 | 76.1% |
| The 39 Steps (Cort) |
$261,218 | 5,069 | 0 | 8 | 787 | $51.53 | 80.5% |
| The Country Girl (Jacobs) |
$424,757 | 5,589 | 0 | 8 | 1,103 | $76.00 | 63.3% |
| The Lion King (Minskoff) |
$1,251,150 | 13,234 | 0 | 8 | 1,654 | $94.54 | 100.0% |
| The Little Mermaid (Lunt-Fontanne) |
$1,006,640 | 11,710 | 0 | 8 | 1,518 | $85.96 | 96.4% |
| The Phantom of the Opera (Majestic) |
$850,555 | 12,638 | 0 | 8 | 1,607 | $67.30 | 98.3% |
| Thurgood (Booth) |
$292,141 | 5,063 | 0 | 8 | 780 | $57.70 | 81.1% |
| Top Girls (Biltmore) |
$199,240 | 3,556 | 0 | 8 | 650 | $56.03 | 68.4% |
| Wicked (Gershwin) |
$1,451,486 | 14,472 | 0 | 8 | 1,809 | $100.30 | 100.0% |
| Xanadu (Hayes) |
$218,887 | 3,588 | 0 | 8 | 596 | $61.01 | 75.3% |
All data provided by The Broadway League
