Broadway Industry Soars, But “Hamilton” Wobbles

Strong Performance in the Week Leading Up to Mother’s Day

Last week, the week ending May 13, 2018, the overall Broadway industry performed quite well. Of the 36 shows that were running, the collective box office gross amounted to $38,621,286, which is an increase of $1,627,256 from the previous week with the same number of shows running. This amounted to an average gross per show of $1,072,814, which is an increase from the previous week’s per-show average of $1,027,612. With an average top ticket price of $311.76, the average paid admission across all shows was $126.15, and the audience capacity averaged out to 91.02%, up from last week’s average audience capacity of 87.06%. The average percentage reached of gross potential was 79.03% across all shows.

The biggest increase was seen by Springsteen on Broadway, which played one more performance than last week, accounting for the upsurge. The Boss brought in $482,428 more than the week before, reaching a weekly gross of $2,411,033, while the percentage earned of gross potential across these two weeks was almost identical at 101.12% (compared to last week’s 101.11%).

Additional growth was demonstrated by School of Rock, which went up by $147,620 to reach a weekly gross of $773,758, or 53.6% of its gross potential, SpongeBob SquarePants, which went up by $125,423 to reach a weekly gross of $691,085, or 48.7% of its gross potential, A Bronx Tale the Musical, which went up by $123,878 to reach a weekly gross of $593,411, or 64.4% of gross potential, Anastasia, which went up by $122,444 to reach a weekly gross of $806,434, or 73.7% of gross potential, and Angels in America, which went up by $110,779 to reach a weekly gross of $927,966, or 68.1% of gross potential.

Hamilton Drops Most of Any Show This Past Week

Hamilton, by and large considered the most successful musical of the decade, is still performing very well, but its numbers are showing signs of slowing down. This past week, Hamilton saw a drop of $284,697 in its weekly gross, bringing the total from last week to $2,816,606. Still, this represents 107.1% of the show’s gross potential. Furthermore, the previous week had seen an increase of $278,025, so this brings the weekly gross just slightly below its performance from two weeks go. Nevertheless, this volatility may be a sign of dynamic pricing, or it may be a sign that Hamilton is starting to face new competition.

Beyond Hamilton, another mega-hit musical saw a big drop this past week. The Lion King went down by $282,329 to reach a weekly gross of $1,834,578, or 109.9% of its gross potential. However, in that case, The Lion King played only seven performances this past week, accounting for the decrease in box office gross. In addition, newcomer The Boys in the Band saw a decrease of $130,626, bringing the gross to $877,471 in a week of seven performances. Still, this represents 105.1% of the show’s gross potential, an excellent performance for this new show.