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It was a very Merry Christmas all across Broadway as producers benefitted from higher traffic in the week leading up to the holiday. Overall box office rose a whopping $7 million to $36,271,797, up from the previous week’s $29,484,797. Attendance jumped from 276,704 to 299,280. The average ticket price rose from $106.56 to $121.20.
Many shows, mainly musicals, saw their box-office take climb by six figures, with a handful of those hovering around the half-million mark. Following strong reviews, the new revival of Fiddler on the Roof saw a jump of $502,039 at the till, leading the show to 96 percent capacity crowds and 97 percent of its potential gross.
The biggest box-office increase of the week belonged to The Phantom of the Opera, which took in $598,751 more than the week before, leading to a $1,458,784 collection. The limited run of The Illusionists rose $543,181 to $1,362,681. Wicked soared by $497,702 over the previous week, bringing its total to $2,400,920. The Lion King’s extra $435,779 brought its total to $2,588,075. The latter was the biggest box-office number of the week. Their average ticket price clocked in at $190.72.
School of Rock, the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the movie of the same time, had a good week. It played to capacity crowds and collected 105 percent of its potential gross. Monies rocketed $483,128 to $1,506,236. The average ticket price was $129.51.
The average ticket price for The Book or Mormon was a higher-than-usual $216.23.
The Broadway production of Aladdin broke a house record at The New Amsterdam Theatre last week. It grossed $2,095,364 over eight performances, surpassing even the nine-performance record of $2,078,163 set this summer. That marked the tenth time the production has broken a New Amsterdam Theatre house record since beginning performances in February 2014.
In the midst of all this bounty, the losses at China Doll stood in stark relief. The show’s intake dropped by $211,755 to $610,775. The show only did six shows this past week, as opposed to seven. Still, capacity was down from 73 percent to 68 percent, and the gross was only 68 percent of the possible.
