Broadway Box Office

The Cost of Doing Business on Broadway

by Paul Mroczka

An American in Paris on Broadway.
An American in Paris is Broadway at its best.

In 2011, the New York Times Arts Beat blog offered an article entitled “The Staggering Cost of Broadway.” In it, writer Patrick Healy referenced the revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, a three-character drama that had recently been produced in London and was transferring to Broadway. In interviewing London producer Sonia Friedman about the hit production, it became clear exactly how costly it is to produce a play on Broadway.

Healy wrote, “This ‘Betrayal’ revival cost £350,000 (about $565,000) to mount in the West End, Ms. Friedman said, and an additional £65,000 ($105,000) to pay weekly running costs. By comparison, she estimates that the same production would cost about $2.8 million to mount on Broadway — the standard amount for a commercial play production — and an additional $260,000 or so to run each week.”

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Will Broadway Ticket Sales See an Uptick This Week?

by Paul Mroczka

On the Town sees slumping sales.

On the Town sees slumping sales.

As noted in an early story, the months of January and February can be especially tough on Broadway shows. The week ending January 25 (the 35th of the 2014-2015 season) saw almost every show lose ground. This time of year can be a tough sale due to weather, a lack of excess cash due to the holidays, and the overall physical and mental drain people feel this time of year.

Shows in the Plus Column

Shows that showed in creased sales few and far between. Those productions that enjoyed increased volume included Chicago (0.2%), It’s Only a Play (1.9%), Kinky Boots (2.0%), and Mamma Mia! (2.5%). Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and The Book of Mormon were both stable, with the former selling 93% and the latter overbooked at 102.6%.

The big winner was Sting’s musical The Last Ship, which closed on January 24. That show saw an increase of 4%, selling at 87.6%. Although The Last Ship garnered fine reviews, it just could not find an audience.

Slow Sales Overall

Sting appeared in The Last Ship in an attempt to boost ticket sales.

Sting appeared in The Last Ship in an attempt to boost ticket sales.

The Broadway front is seeing slow sales overall. The revival of On the Town, which received excellent notices, was at 60.3% for the week ending January 25, and the new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, which reviewers loved, came in at 71.3%. It will be interesting to see how Honeymoon in Vegas will perform in the next few weeks, and if, overall, as the weather improves, sales will spike up.

Figures for the week ending February 1, 2015 will include an extra dark night for some shows, which closed down due to the storm forecast. That forecast proved to be much ado about nothing.

Broadway Grosses Unpredictable During January

by Paul Mroczka

Honeymoon in Vegas Box Office

Honeymoon in Vegas Box Office

Honeymoon in Vegas, which received great reviews, got a bump in ticket sales.

The ‘dead months” for Broadway begin in January with the start of the calendar year and stretch into early March. It’s a time that can be tough on Broadway ticket sales, as people are often low on cash due to holiday spending. Also, the unpredictable and unkind weather, short days and cold nights, and a general letdown after all of the hustle and bustle that defines the time from Thanksgiving through to New Year’s, contribute to uneven ticket sales.

Mid-January Box Office Figures

Mamma Mia! Broadway musical

Mamma Mia! saw a decreased os more than 10%.

The box office numbers as reported by Playbill.com for the week ending January 18, 2015, reveal an overall uptick from those for the week ending January 11th. Most plays and musicals showed an increase in ticket sales for the week running from the 12th to the 18th. Where as for the week ending January 11th every show, except Aladdin and The Book of Mormon, saw a decline from the week prior, which included New Year’s.

Shows that experienced a decline in sales for the week ending January 18th were Cabaret (-1.4%), Chicago (-5.8%), It’s Only a Play (-5.0%), Jersey Boys (-6.3%), Les Misérables (-5.9%), The Lion King (-1.0%), and The Phantom of the Opera (-8.8%). Mamma Mia! posted the only double-digit dovetail, with sales down 12.8%,

Shows Trending Upward

Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance on Broadway

John Lithgow and Glenn Close star in Albee’s A Delicate Balance.

Of the 29 shows presently running on Broadway, 21 either showed no decline or enjoyed an increase in sales. That means 74% of the shows experienced either improved or stable tickets sales.

The show that saw the biggest increase was the revival of Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama A Delicate Balance. There was a 10.1% increase in sales, as the John Golden Theatre reached 83.4% capacity. Two other revivals rebounded nicely, as On the Town notched an increase of 7.7%, going from 58.1% to 65.8%, and You Can’t Take It With You received a 7.2% bump, as it went from 61.3% capacity to 68.5%.

Honeymoon in Vegas

The new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, which garnered wonderful reviews during the week, went from 78.5% to 81.5% capacity. It will be interesting to see if what appears to be the first big hit of 2015 continues to see increased ticket sales during what can be the harshest time of the year for Broadway theatres. Broadway producers will be anxiously eyeing advanced sales for the coming months, as well as daily and weekly grosses.