Boom!

That sound you just heard was the shattering of records up and down Broadway!

This Sunday marked the end of the 52nd week and thus the end of the 2014-15 Broadway season.  So, it’s time to check in and see just how many bucks were made and how many butts were in seats!

And yeah, it was a good one.

Here we go . . .

GROSSES

• Final gross for the season was $1,365,232,182.
• Last season we grossed $1,268,881,236.
• That’s a 7.6% increase from last season.

ATTENDANCE

• 13,104,078 people saw Broadway shows in the 2014-15 season.
• 12,214,823 people saw Broadway shows last season.
• That’s a 7.3% increase from last season.

PLAYING WEEKS

• There were 1,626 playing weeks this season.
• There were 1,496 playing weeks last season.
• That’s an increase of 8.7% from last season.

So yeah, it was a very good year.

In fact, it was, like, our best year ever.

It was the highest grossing Broadway season ever.  It was the best attended Broadway season ever.  And we had our highest number of playing weeks ever.

Broadway is boomin’ y’all.  Big time.

In fact, the Broadway League’s website reported this fun comparison:

Broadway attendance in the 2014 – 2015 season topped those of the ten professional New York and New Jersey sports teams combined.

You’d think maybe the city government would help build us a stadium.  Or at least give us some tax breaks, right?

So, where do we go from here?

Hopefully, up.  But not only in grosses and attendance.  All of the above is good news.  No, it’s great news (except, of course, if you’re looking to get your hands on a Broadway theater, because all those playing weeks mean theaters are booked).  But it’s not the only news.

I’m thrilled about where we’re headed, but I also want us to focus on breaking another record.  I’d like to see profitability rates increase.  See, more dollars in the till is great, but if the expenses are going up at a rate higher than ticket prices, then who cares how much we gross, right?

Grosses are up.  Attendance is up.

Now it’s time to get profitability up.

Because that would be a beautiful business trifecta.

Will we do it?

Only one way to find out.  Next season begins now.

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