Broadway ticket sales took a significant hit as several productions experienced slight decreases in sales and attendance through the week ending January 29.
Gross sales for Broadway’s 26 productions were down approximately $2 million from the $19.3 million shows earned the week of January 22. While 17 of the 26 shows made improvements, most were very slight and a number of shows saw significant decreases. “The Mountaintop” also dropped out of this week’s gross sales after ending its limited engagement January 22.
“The Road to Mecca” was the big winner of the week with a 19.6 percent increase in sales. The show finished the week with $210,292, which is high for the smaller scaled show.
“War Horse”, which previously saw the biggest week-over-week gains, earned a mere $992 last week over the previous week’s gross. The newly reincarnated “Porgy and Bess,” which has been running just shy of three weeks, took in $921,404, up 4.8 percent over the previous week’s sales of $878,884.
“Wit,” starring Cynthia Nixon, began its Broadway debut on January 26 grossing $205,987 over five performances through January 29, up 12.65 percent from the $182,848 in sales the previous week during what were their preview performances.
Other notable increases were “Memphis,” which increased 9.5 percent ($570,087), and “Stick Fly,” which increased 9.3 percent ($292,182).
Several fan favorites continued to see a decrease: “The Lion King,” fell 4.4 percent ($1.45 millon), “The Phantom of the Opera” fell 4.3 percent ($654,734), “Wicked” fell just 2 percent ($1.5 million) and “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” escaped with a narrow loss, falling just about 1 percent ($1.41 million).