• 10 of these grossed at least $1,000,000.
• 10 grossed between $600,000 and $1,000,000.
• The last 10 grossed between $250,000 and $600,000.

If 1/3rd of your business is in the “millionaires club,” the 1st week in March, you’re in good shape.

• Only 5 were “millionaires.”
• 7 shows grossed between $60,000 and $850,000.
• The remaining 18 shows grossed less than $600,000.

With baseball season around the corner, let’s use a sports analogy – Broadway is no longer a couple of star players on a generally weak roster. Our lineup is strong top to bottom, with a good bench to boot.

And, contrary to popular belief, Broadway isn’t just increasing grosses by increasing prices.

In 1996, the year before THE LION KING opened, Broadway sold 10.2 million tickets and grossed just under $500m.

In 2010, the year before THE BOOK OF MORMON opened, Broadway sold 12.1 million tickets and grossed over $1 billion for the first time ($1.03b).

Last year, having added HAMILTON, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, HELLO, DOLLY! & SPRINGSTEEN, Broadway sold 13.7 million tickets and grossed $1.63 billion.

In fact, speaking of sports teams, for the last three years Broadway has outsold the top 10 New York professional sports teams combined. In 2017, Broadway attendance surpassed the combined NY Sports teams by 2.6 million tickets.

[bonus question: name the top 10 NY sports teams – answer below]

Here’s another comparison: the movies.

In 1996,  1.309 billion people bought a ticket to a movie in the US.

In 2010, 1.328 billion people went to the movies in the US.

But in 2017, 1.225 billion people bought tickets, the lowest figure since 1995.  [source: the-numbers.com]

One might also note that the 3rd highest grossing movie of 2018 so far is a musical, THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, with a distinctly Broadway pedigree (Hugh Jackman, Pasek & Paul, Keala Settle).

So while moviegoers continue to decline, the audience for Broadway continues to grow. Last year’s record year for both attendance and grosses on Broadway and this year, thanks to HARRY POTTER, FROZEN, MEAN GIRLS et al, those records will be broken again.

Let the good times roll.

[The answer to the bonus question?  The Top 10 NY sports teams by attendance: NY Yankees, NY Mets, NY Jets, NY Giants, NY Rangers, NY Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, NJ Devils, NY Islanders, NY Red Bulls]

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Mike Rafael has worked on ticketing for over three dozen Broadway shows and has set the house record in 5 different Broadway theaters. Last year he helped WICKED set the all-time single-year attendance record for Broadway.