Good Night, and Good Luck has broken its own record to once again enjoy the highest-grossing week ever for a Broadway play, bringing in $3.78 million dollars at an average ticket price of $303. The production is one of many raking it in with A-list stars above the title, which has shifted fortunes on the usually musical-dominated Broadway towards the play side of things. As we have seen for several weeks now, three of the top-five grossers on the Main Stem were plays last week, with Othello and Glengarry Glen Ross joining Good Night.
Wicked, which in normal circumstances would likely be atop the list with its $2.5 million take, took the number three spot last week behind Good Night and Othello, the latter with $3.12 million. Fellow consistent top grosser The Lion King took the fifth spot with $2.09 million, the first time in a while the entire top five have been in The $2 Million Club or better.
And luckily, no one show is reaping all of the benefits. Over the 40 currently running shows, grosses were up 4.25% compared to the week prior, bringing in a total of $44.16 million鈥攈ooray for spring break! More than 90% of seats were filled, with 328,926 total tickets sold at an average cost of $134.26. This week beat the same week last season by more than 24%, keeping us firmly on the road towards a huge increase for the season cumulatively compared to last year. It's also nice to see that while pricier tickets are outpacing increases in attendance, it's not by much鈥攆or the entire season so far, attendance is up by 16.63%, compared to grosses being up by 18.85% compared to the same period last season. Average ticket price has only risen by 1.9%.
But expensive tickets are making Broadway's biggest hits. Othello topped the most expensive on the Main Stem last week, with an average of $375.22, the only other show except for Good Night, and Good Luck to exceed $300. Glengarry Glen Ross commanded an average ticket price of $211.86 last week, with Hamilton, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Just in Time not terribly far behind鈥攐nly Hamilton is not led by A-listers (for now).
If anyone was worried that the amount of big stars on the boards would split ticket buys with big winners and big losers as we were waiting for the season to get going, that has certainly not turned out to be the case. And that probably means we can look forward to lots more stars in the coming seasons, too.
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 ($3.78 million)
- Othello ($3.12 million)
- Wicked ($2.46 million)
- Glengarry Glen Ross ($2.21 million)
- The Lion King ($2.09)
- Hamilton
- Aladdin
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- The Outsiders
- MJ The Musical
- Gypsy
- Death Becomes Her
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Oh, Mary!
- The Great Gatsby
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Sunset Boulevard
(17 of 40 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- John Proctor is the Villain (101.44%)
- Good Night, And Good Luck (101.43%)
- The Outsiders (100.79%)
- Just in Time (100.79%)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (100.46%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Dead Outlaw (100%)
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Oh, Mary!
- Othello
- Hamilton
- The Lion King
- Operation Mincemeat
- Pirates! The Penzance Musical
- Aladdin
- Hadestown
- The Last Five Years
- & Juliet
- Smash
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- Buena Vista Social Club
- The Great Gatsby
- Death Becomes Her
- The Book of Mormon
- Purpose
- Cabaret
(28 of 40 currently running productions)
