Broadway Grosses w/e 7/9/2017 – An argument against stars in your show.
This week, the grosses took a hit from not one but two stars gone AWOL. One, Bette Midler, returns this week, but the other, Josh Groban, who left Natasha Pierre on July 2nd, will probably not occupy a dressing room in a Broadway theater anytime soon (his team of agents and managers are probably drooling to get him back out in the big time touring circuit since they lost him for almost a year).
The downside of premium pricing is that when stars leave, the box office can plummet as much as it can rise when they are in residence.
Or, you can be a show like Dear Evan Hansen, and do 1.7mm a week without a bona fide star (not to mention an onstage cast of only 8 and a band of about the same, making its profit margins one of the best on Broadway).
Takeaway? The same I said in this blog, many, many years ago when I analyzed the longest running musicals on Broadway.
Overall, grosses were down a bit from the week before, but I’ve always found that stat misleading. Week to week isn’t a way to compare how any business is doing. To compare apples to sort-of-the-same-apples, you have to look at how we did in the same frame, 52 weeks before. And when you do that, well, we were up over $4mm, bringing us to up a whopping 20% on the gross from last year.
And we haven’t even gotten to the fall yet!
Below are the grosses for all of the shows on Broadway for the w/e 7/9/17.
| Show Name | GrossGross | TotalAttn | %Capacity | AvgPdAdm |
| 1984 | $369,888.08 | 5,863 | 75.55% | $63.09 |
| A BRONX TALE THE MUSICAL | $660,642.50 | 7,001 | 83.82% | $94.36 |
| A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 | $450,676.00 | 5,532 | 89.23% | $81.47 |
| ALADDIN | $1,618,189.00 | 13,290 | 96.19% | $121.76 |
| ANASTASIA | $1,050,635.30 | 8,713 | 95.29% | $120.58 |
| BANDSTAND | $554,553.35 | 6,799 | 82.27% | $81.56 |
| BEAUTIFUL | $569,780.39 | 5,354 | 65.23% | $106.42 |
| CATS | $772,602.50 | 8,712 | 79.20% | $88.68 |
| CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY | $1,088,314.00 | 10,725 | 89.61% | $101.47 |
| CHICAGO | $694,507.92 | 7,660 | 88.66% | $90.67 |
| COME FROM AWAY | $1,252,968.50 | 8,528 | 101.91% | $146.92 |
| DEAR EVAN HANSEN | $1,725,297.28 | 7,990 | 101.50% | $215.93 |
| GROUNDHOG DAY | $757,537.60 | 7,992 | 81.35% | $94.79 |
| HAMILTON | $3,061,008.00 | 10,755 | 101.77% | $284.61 |
| HELLO, DOLLY! | $722,573.54 | 8,881 | 76.77% | $81.36 |
| INDECENT | $334,409.44 | 6,177 | 71.96% | $54.14 |
| KINKY BOOTS | $1,320,884.15 | 11,203 | 98.34% | $117.90 |
| MARVIN’S ROOM | $194,304.60 | 3,927 | 76.43% | $49.48 |
| MISS SAIGON | $730,221.25 | 9,053 | 65.15% | $80.66 |
| NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 | $890,914.20 | 8,634 | 94.84% | $103.19 |
| ON YOUR FEET! | $603,959.40 | 7,906 | 60.78% | $76.39 |
| OSLO | $669,470.00 | 7,727 | 92.25% | $86.64 |
| SCHOOL OF ROCK | $1,028,058.08 | 10,479 | 86.01% | $98.11 |
| THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,069,773.00 | 7,620 | 102.12% | $140.39 |
| THE LION KING | $2,262,716.00 | 13,519 | 99.64% | $167.37 |
| THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA | $1,091,325.90 | 11,781 | 91.75% | $92.63 |
| THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG | $328,094.25 | 5,122 | 74.97% | $64.06 |
| WAITRESS | $687,685.60 | 6,938 | 82.99% | $99.12 |
| WAR PAINT | $601,173.50 | 7,165 | 76.68% | $83.90 |
| WICKED | $1,920,520.00 | 15,125 | 98.16% | $126.98 |
| TOTALS | $29,082,683.33 | 256,171 | 86.01% | $107.15 |
| +/- THIS WEEK LAST SEASON | +$4,220,025.90 | |||
| PERCENTAGE +/- THIS WEEK LAST SEASON | +16.97% |
*Broadway Grosses courtesy of The Broadway League.
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