Broadway Grosses Analysis: The January Slump Has Arrived, But People Are Still Flocking to Phantom | Playbill

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Grosses Broadway Grosses Analysis: The January Slump Has Arrived, But People Are Still Flocking to Phantom

After a holiday high and a spate of show closings, cumulative grosses fell to $25.8 million.

What goes up must come down. After a holiday high, the January slump has officially arrived. Thanks mostly to a number of production closings (just 23 shows were performing last week), cumulative grosses on Broadway fell to $25.8 million. Don't panic; the January slump is a well documented annual phenomenon. Shows tend to close around New Year's or shortly thereafter, and tourism slows as everyone returns to school and work. Last week's total fell short of similar January slump weeks from 2020 ($27.6 million the week ending January 26) and 2019 ($30 million the week ending January 27), but with lots of new productions set to begin performing in the coming weeks, Broadway's spirits—and box office—will assuredly rise in tandem.

With The Music Man and its regular more-than-$3 million grosses closed and behind us, The Phantom of the Opera has emerged as Broadway's new number-one grosser. Fans are still flocking to see the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber musical one last time before it closes its historic run in April—as of this last week, the Broadway production has welcomed a staggering 20 million theatregoers over its entire run. As the production readies to celebrate its 35th anniversary at the Majestic Theatre, the musical brought in $2.2 million last week and played to standing-room-only houses. The production is also among the most expensive to see on Broadway currently, with an average ticket price of $172.41 and a top ticket price of nearly $500.

Speaking of long-running musicals, Chicago also got a bump this week as two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon and James T. Lane joined the company as Matron "Mama" Morton and Billy Flynn, respectively. The pair sent the Kander and Ebb musical's grosses, which had been hovering around $600,000 save some holiday high marks, to $836,318.25, one of the production's highest-grossing eight-performance weeks since before the shutdown.

With tourism slowing post-holidays, it's an interesting moment to check in with some of Broadway's newer productions. Neil Diamond jukebox bio musical A Beautiful Noise is continuing to play to large houses at the Broadhurst, bringing in $1.14 million last week and filling 87% of seats. & Juliet has been hovering at the million dollar mark since the new year, with $1 million in receipts at the box office last week and 97% of its seats filled. Kimberly Akimbo is also filling seats, with 94% of them filled last week, but the Booth's lower capacity and a relatively low average ticket price of $92.59 held back its total gross at just $537,652.80. As for new plays, The Piano Lesson and Leopoldstadt have both definitively earned status as the ever-elusive hit plays. The August Wilson revival, running at the Barrymore, re-joined The $1 Million Club last week after a two-week absence. Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt has cooled a bit since earlier in its run when it regularly brought in receipts in excess of $1 million, but is still a strong performer with 74% of seats filled at the Longacre and grosses of $808,145.10.

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 ($2.2 million)
  • Hamilton
  • Funny Girl
  • The Lion King
  • Wicked
  • MJ The Musical
  • Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
  • Aladdin
  • A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
  • The Piano Lesson
  • SIX: The Musical
  • & Juliet

(13 of 29 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 (100.61%)
  • MJ The Musical (100.05%)
  • Hamilton
  • The Piano Lesson
  • Hadestown
  • Chicago
  • The Book of Mormon
  • Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  • Funny Girl
  • SIX: The Musical
  • & Juliet
  • Wicked
  • Aladdin
  • Between Riverside and Crazy
  • The Lion King
  • Kimberly Akimbo
  • Pictures From Home

(17 of 29 currently running productions)

 
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