Broadway finished last season with the highest grosses in its history, and two of the biggest helps there鈥攖he consistently high-grossing Good Night, And Good Luck and Othello鈥攂oth finished their runs last week with their highest-ever grosses. Good Night, co-written by and starring George Clooney, brought in an impressive $4.33 million, the latest in a string of records broken for the highest-grossing non-musical play on the Main Stem.
The achievement is perhaps even more impressive considering the screen-to-stage adaptation's June 7 performance was broadcast and streamed live for free via CNN, a stunt that itself performed incredibly well, to the tune of 7.34 million viewers. A-list movie stars, plus buzzy, timely material, equals big wins鈥攚ho knew! Othello, itself led by fellow Hollywood A-listers Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, was a total shut out at June 8's Tony Awards, and still closed the same day to $3.81 million, at an average ticket price of $456.36 (that figure is the highest from its run, too).
Both of those top grossers (in the first and second spots for Broadway as a whole) helped bring in a cumulative $45.79 million over the 40 currently running shows, an increase of almost 2% from last week and more than 30% from the same week in last season鈥攁nd now you see why the record-breaking season total certainly didn't come from nowhere! Average ticket price across all running shows was a healthy $139, with 329,886 tickets sold鈥攕urprisingly, a slight decrease from the week previous.
June 8 was, of course, the 78th Annual Tony Awards, so all eyes will be on grosses data to watch the impact (start making predictions with the full list of this year's winners here). Some Tony-related boosts might be seen beginning with next week's data, but that will only reflect this week's performances. The Tonys' bigger effect tends to be to shows' advances. And, of course, with top grossers Good Night, And Good Luck and Othello both off the boards, it's safe to assume there will be a massive drop in overall grosses for Broadway on the whole next week. That's just the nature of limited runs and nothing to be concerned about, so be prepared. After all, there are lots of buzzy shows waiting in the wings to take their spot.
Usual suspects Wicked, Glengarry Glen Ross, and The Lion King filled out the rest of the week's top five, each handily landing in The $2 Million Club. Looking ahead, Hamilton's already solid fortunes may rise as the Broadway production begins the celebrations for its 10th anniversary. That kicked off with a special reunion performance from the original Broadway cast during the weekend's Tony Awards ceremony. Renewed interest in the landmark production is sure to send ticket prices even higher, and we certainly know what that means!
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Good Night and Good Luck ($4.33 million)
- Othello ($3.81 million)
- Wicked ($2.41 million)
- Glengarry Glen Ross ($2.36 million)
- The Lion King ($2 million)
- Hamilton
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Death Becomes Her
- Aladdin
- Sunset Boulevard
- Just in Time
- Buena Vista Social Club
- The Outsiders
- Oh, Mary!
- Maybe Happy Ending
- MJ The Musical
- The Great Gatsby
- Gypsy
(18 of 40 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Just in Time (103.32%)
- John Proctor is the Villain (102.46%)
- Maybe Happy Ending (102.33%)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (101.35%)
- The Outsiders (101.28%)
- Good Night, and Good Luck (101.28%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Othello (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Operation Mincemeat
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Hamilton
- The Lion King
- Purpose
- Hadestown
- Aladdin
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- & Juliet
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- The Great Gatsby
(20 of 40 currently running productions)
