The pre-Christmas tourist rush in NYC made last week Broadway’s second most successful of the year, and the most successful ever for Springsteen on Broadway and Hamilton, according to numbers provided by The Broadway League.
A total of 32 shows playing to Broadway grossed $35,796,213 for the week ending on Christmas Eve. This was an increase of over $5 million in total gross from the same week last year, despite a dip of almost 1,000 in attendance.
This is no doubt due to the help of the leading show’s ticket prices. Years into its Broadway engagement, the hit hip-hop musical Hamilton proved it’s going nowhere anytime soon; the show broke its Thanksgiving week record by over $300,000 with a gross of $3,797,844 for eight performances. The average ticket price was $353.06, second only to Springsteen‘s average of $508.69. That show also broke its weekly gross record, bringing in $2,411,185 for just five shows.
Breaking the $2 million mark were tourist-friendly shows The Lion King, Wicked and Hello, Dolly!, which boasts Bette Midler as the lead player for just a few more weeks.
Ten shows broke $1 million including seasoned fan-favorites like Cats and Phantom of the Opera and a few new shows stirring Tony buzz, Come From Away and The Band’s Visit.
Even greater success for these shows may be soon forthcoming, as the final week of the year is historically the highest grossing. Last year, Broadway grossed a record-breaking $49.7 million during that week.
