By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on August 23, 2017 9:59 AM
On Your Feet! Played Its Final Week To A Spike In Ticket Sales, But The Week Overall Was Quite Slow, With Almost Every Show Slowing Pace.
Almost Every Show Decreases In Box Office
In the week ending August 20, 2017, the entire Broadway industry saw a slow-down, with the collective gross among the 30 shows running decreasing by $1,637,550. Whereas last week had a per-show average of $1,010,411, this past week’s per-show average gross was $955,826.
Average audience capacity was also down from 87.47% the week before, to 83.60% this past week. The biggest decrease was seen by Wicked, which went down by $273,756 to reach a weekly gross of $1,792,574, or 100.7% of gross potential.
Big Increase For "Wicked"
The reason for this steep increase was that Wicked had a 9-performance week the week before this past one. The next biggest decrease was seen by Aladdin, which went down by $142,542 to reach a weekly gross of $1,561,351, or 95.1% of gross potential. Meanwhile, School of Rock decreased by $134,732 to reach a weekly gross of $904,547, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory decreased by $134,165 to reach a weekly gross of $880,764, and Waitress went down by $98,096 to reach a weekly gross of $602,137.
Beyond that, Cats decreased by $95,347, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 decreased by $93,237, Kinky Boots decreased by $80,231, Anastasia decreased by $79,637, The Lion King decreased by $72,331, Hamilton decreased by $70,862, and The Phantom of the Opera decreased by $66,805.
“On Your Feet!” Spikes In Final Week
Meanwhile, only three shows saw an increase in ticket sales. On Your Feet!, the Gloria and Emilio Estefan musical, played the last performance of its long run on August 20, 2017. An anomaly from the week’s general performance this past week, On Your Feet! therefore saw an increase in ticket sales.
There was a healthy showing of support in the final week as fans and last chancers came out to see the show. On Your Feet! had a weekly gross of $1,207,439 in its final week, which is an increase of $152,966 from the week before.
"Dear Evan Hansen" Tony Award Winner
With a top ticket price of $199, the average paid admission was $102.60, and the audience was filled up to 90.5%. The only other show to increase by anything other than a negligible amount was Dear Evan Hansen, this year’s Tony Award winning Best Musical, which is still riding off the success of that win with healthy grosses. Fans eager to see Ben Platt before he departs in the fall came out this past week, as that news was announced.
The weekly gross for that musical was $1,715,019, which represents 124.5% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $448, the average pad admission was $215.10, and the audience was filled up to 101.3% of capacity. Finally, Michael Moore’s one-man show The Terms of My Surrender saw a negligible increase of $3,061 to reach a weekly gross of $410,588. That show is not performing great, with last week’s gross representing just 54.3% of its gross potential.
