The decline was not just due to Penn & Teller on Broadway ending its limited run on Broadway the previous week. Many other shows saw a descent at the till. The Lion King’s take was down $178,877, Wicked’s was down $161,063 and The Phantom of the Opera dipped by $87,355.
In fact, only a handful of shows climbed at the box office over the past week. They were Something Rotten!, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Finding Neverland and Amazing Grace, and none of those increases were significant. Attendance, too, was down at all but a few shows.
The sold-out club saw just a few members in attendance: Fun Home, Hamilton, Mamma Mia!, The Lion King and The Book of Mormon. The best box office performance went to Hamilton, which collected 109.12% of its possible intake. That number bested both The Book of Mormon and The Lion King. The Book of Mormon had the highest average ticket price — $165.24 — followed by The Lion King with $146.30 and Hamilton with $136.04.
The Lion King took in the greatest amount of money last week, with nearly $2 million. Next up was Wicked with $1,751,974 and then Aladdin with $1,720,395.
The 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons seem to be evening out. Last season at this time, Broadway had taken in a collective $351,620,893. This season has now taken in nearly the same amount, $351,345,038. Attendance and number of playing weeks are similarly close.