Broadway ticket sales slip in the fourth week of the new season

With a drop in ticket sales in the fourth week of the new season, the 28 productions on Broadway this past week continued to post respectable returns, $20,838,040 compared to last week’s $22,160,990. Six shows reported more than a million dollars at the box office. The shows that crossed over seven figures were Wicked at the Gershwin, Billy Elliot at the Imperial, West Side Story at the Palace, The Lion King at the Minskoff, Jersey Boys at the August Wilson and Hair at the Al Hirschfeld. Of the ten plays currently on Broadway, God of Carnage at the Jacobs continues to lead, scoring a cool $969,291 with 102 percent attendance.

Another reflection of the solid performance of box offices on Broadway was the 13 shows posting more than 95 percent attendance. That’s almost half the shows on The Way. The largest increase over the previous reporting period was seen by the play The 39 Steps, up more than 8 percent with only 589 seats, while the musical 9 to 5 at the Marquis with 1,611 seats saw a drop of 6 percent.

Dollar-wise, The Little Mermaid at the Lunt-Fontanne experienced the largest gain at $82,000 this past week while Accent on Youth at the Friedman saw the largest drop, losing $44,483.

The Tracy Letts’ 3-hour-long drama, August: Osage County playing at the Music Box, will close its doors on June 28 after playing 648 performances and 18 previews since it opened in 2007.

According to Variety, the Off Broadway Alliance reported an off-Broadway citywide economic impact of $461.3 million during the 2007/08 season.

Broadway Gross Ticket Sales Week ending June 21, 2009
All data provided by The Broadway League