Have you heard? It's over now, that "Music of the Night." The Phantom of the Opera ended its historic, 35-year run at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway April 16, capping off a box-office bonanza set off by the first announcement of the impending closing date. In its final week on the Main Stem, it didn't quite break into the $4 Million Club as it had looked like it might, but it still went out with the highest-grossing week of its entire run, $3.74 million.
That total becomes more impressive when one realizes that the final April 16 performance was almost 100% invite-only and comped and the April 14 performance was for charity. Theatregoers eager to see the gothic masterpiece one last time still helped deliver an impressive final week thanks to an average ticket price of $287.07—to say nothing of its top ticket sold, which rang in at $1,498. With numbers like this, that Broadway return producer Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber keep hinting at is surely inevitable.
Sweeney Todd pulled into the top five for the second time last week, bringing in $1.79 million and teetering ever closer to joining the $2 Million Club. Perhaps audiences are just really hungry for dark, operatic, and suspenseful musicals originally directed by Hal Prince? Prima Facie is also shaping up to be a top performer among this season's new crop of shows, bringing in $889,665.70 in its first week of previews despite only playing seven performances (the Jodie Comer solo work is scheduled to begin playing eight performance weeks after its April 23 opening). New York, New York also looks to be approaching Parade and & Juliet to duke it out among the newest musicals, joining the $1 Million Club for the first time last week. With Tony Award nominations just around the corner, those standings could change dramatically.
Cumulatively, grosses remain healthy on Broadway, even with a slight fall in overall totals compared to last week when one less show was running. The 34 productions playing brought in $38.5 million last week, with 90% of seats filled—282,895 theatregoers took in a show.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (Shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- The Phantom of the Opera ($3.74 million)
- The Lion King ($2.83 million)
- Wicked ($2.25 million)
- Hamilton ($2.04 million)
- Sweeney Todd
- Funny Girl
- Aladdin
- MJ The Musical
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- & Juliet
- SIX: The Musical
- Parade
- The Book of Mormon
- New York, New York
(15 of 34 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (Shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- The Phantom of the Opera (101.46%)
- Hamilton (101.18%)
- Sweeney Todd (100.79%)
- & Juliet
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- MJ The Musical
- Wicked
- Hadestown
- Prima Facie
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Parade
- The Lion King
- The Book of Mormon
- Aladdin
- Camelot
- SIX: The Musical
- Peter Pan Goes Wrong
- A Doll's House
- Shucked
- Funny Girl
(20 of 34 currently running productions)
