Lots of this season's new shows—nine, in fact—saw the highest grosses of their entire runs last week, which may indicate the impact of this year's Tony Award nominations has finally arrived. Hell's Kitchen, Suffs, Cabaret, The Outsiders, Stereophonic, Mother Play, and Mary Jane all fared well with Tony nominations and are seeing rising box-office receipts. But it's not just the Tony nominees. The Great Gatsby and Lempicka, neither of which managed to get a Best Musical nod, go on that list, too.
Overall, Broadway saw a pretty healthy week, with cumulative grosses rising by almost three percent despite having one less show available for theatregoers to see (Sweeney Todd closed May 5). That converted to $35.7 million, an encouraging 14% increase from the same week last year. And unsurprisingly, seats remain filled. Last week, 286,841 people saw a Broadway show, filling 90% of seats among all 34 currently-running productions. Average ticket prices went up to $124.55, too.
The big winner of the new season continues to be Cabaret, which joined The $2 Million Club for the first time last week, thanks in no small part to the revival continuing to enjoy the highest average ticket price on the Main Stem: $235. That made the Tony-nominated Kander and Ebb revival the second highest-grossing show of the week after The Lion King, with Hamilton, Wicked, and MJ The Musical filling out the rest of the top five.
When looking at cumulative grosses on the whole, there have been some erratic ups and downs in recent weeks, but that's to be expected with so many shows opening and inviting press and award voters in for free. Broadway is still seeing a general upward trend, which should hopefully continue with a healthy post-Tonys summer season.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- The Lion King ($2.11 million)
- Cabaret ($2 million)
- Hamilton
- Wicked
- MJ The Musical
- The Wiz
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Merrily We Roll Along
- Hell's Kitchen
- Aladdin
- The Great Gatsby
- Water for Elephants
- An Enemy of the People
- The Outsiders
(14 of 35 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- An Enemy of the People (103.3%)
- Hell's Kitchen (101%)
- The Outsiders (100.18%)
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical (100.06%)
- Hamilton (100.04%)
- Merrily We Roll Along (100%)
- Cabaret
- Stereophonic
- Hadestown
- Mother Play
- Mary Jane
- MJ The Musical
- The Lion King
- The Wiz
- The Book of Mormon
- Aladdin
- Illinoise
- Wicked
- Suffs
- Appropriate
- The Great Gatsby
- SIX: The Musical
(22 of 35 currently running productions)