By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on October 18, 2017 3:10 PM
The Band’s Visit And M. Butterfly Are Two New Shows Performing Healthy Grosses, While Springsteen On Broadway Settles To More Normal Numbers.
Broadway Box Office Stayed Constant From Week Before
This past week, the week ending October 15, 2017, the Broadway box office evened out to almost exactly the same total gross as the week before. From among the 28 shows running, the collective gross for the week was $29,928,496, which is just $179,614 more than the week before.
Despite this almost exact replication of the cumulative gross, the individual shows performed to varying degrees of success. The biggest decrease this past week was seen by Springsteen on Broadway, which still performed well, but was not as hyperbolically successful as its debut week.
Decrease For Springsteen's Solo Show
This past week, Springsteen’s solo show brought in $1,924,818 across its usual five performances, which is a decrease of $407,290 from last week. While the audience capacity was still 100.0%, the percentage reached of gross potential went down to 80.9%, in contrast to last week’s debut of 98.51%.
While the show is still likely to be incredibly lucrative throughout the run, this past week’s numbers show that the first week’s excitement overstated the overall performance we can expect from the show. Another big drop was seen by The Lion King, which brought in $198,089 less than last week, bringing it to a weekly gross of $2,079,369, or 98.4% of its gross potential.
Decreases For Long-Running Musicals
In addition, Wicked went down by $101,846 to reach a weekly gross of $1,767,617, or 99.3% of its gross potential. Other decreases were seen by long-running musicals including Aladdin, which went down by $87,699 to reach a weekly gross of $1,492,667, School of Rock, which went down by $76,384 to reach a weekly gross of $888,259, Come From Away, which went down by $43,583 to reach a weekly gross of $1,336,265, and Waitress, which went down by $42,865 to reach a weekly gross of $762,631.
“The Band’s Visit” And “M. Butterfly” Show Promise
As for the biggest increases this past week, which accounted for the evening out to equate this week’s gross almost exact with the previous week’s, those numbers were mostly due to new shows running in almost full performance weeks for the first time.
The Band’s Visit, a new musical about an Egyptian band that accidentally finds itself in a rural Israeli town, ran for seven performances this past week, up from only one performance in its first week the week before.
"The Band's Visit" Opens November 9th
Over those seven performances, the weekly gross was $768,914, which is an increase of $634,235 from last week. While that increase is due to the added six performances, the percentage reached of gross potential actually went down, from 98.87% for the first preview, to 84.20% this past week.
Nevertheless, that weekly gross is not bad for a small new musical that comes to Broadway without a heavy dose of brand recognition or major stars in the cast. Once the show opens on November 9, 2017, the reviews will cinch whether or not it becomes a success.
"M. Butterfly" Opens October 26th
Meanwhile, another new show also added more performances this past week. M. Butterfly, the revival of David Henry Hwang’s beloved work directed by Julie Taymor and starring Clive Owen, also played 7 performances this past week, up from 2 the week before.
This past week, the show brought in a weekly gross of $521,366, which represents 63.10% of its gross potential. That show is scheduled to open on October 26, 2017, after which it’s future will be more clear.
