Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 02/14/2016

This Week’s Notable Movements on Broadway are:

Valentine’s Day Weekend Very Healthy for Broadway Ticket Sales

In the week ending February 14, 2016, which happened to include Valentine’s Day weekend, love was in the air – not just for the couples flocking to Broadway shows for their romantic evenings and afternoons, but also for the producers checking the box office receipts. This past week, of the 31 shows presently running, the entire Broadway collective gross was $25,713,391, which is an increase of $4,688,567 from the week before. On a per show basis, the average box office gross for the week was $829,464, up from an average of $724,994 from the week before. Of the shows that were also running the previous week, the biggest increase was seen by Les Misérables, which brought in $871,423, up $294,464 from the week before.

Matilda brought in $837,763, up $291,411 from the week before, and Finding Neverland brought in $841,122, up $283,887 from the week before. These were all shows that had been performing at mediocre levels in the recent winter weeks, but picked up this past week. As for the higher grossing shows, Aladdin brought in $1,493,306, up $267,733 from the week before, Wicked brought in $1,695,453, up $265,757 from the week before, School of Rock brought in $999,098, up $242,527 from the week before, Kinky Boots brought in $917,439, up $215,154 from the week before, The Book of Mormon brought in $1,472,569, up $199,237 from the week before, and The Lion King brought in $1,717,043, up $183,640 from the week before.

Two New Shows: “Disaster!” and “Hughie”

This past week also saw the beginning of previews for two new shows on Broadway. First, on February 8, 2016, Hughie began previews at the Booth Theatre. Starring Forest Whitaker in his Broadway debut, this Eugene O’Neill play directed by Michael Grandage performed to mid-level success in its first week of 7 performances. Over the course of the week, the show brought in $330,298, which represents 48.7% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $198, the average paid admission was $63.52, and the average audience was filled up to 96.2%. Then on February 9, 2016, Disaster! began previews at the Nederlander Theatre.

With a starry cast filled with names including Faith Prince, Roger Bart, Rachel York, Adam Pascal, Kerry Butler, and Kevin Chamberlin, Disaster! is a musical comedy co-conceived and co-written by Sirius XM radio star Seth Rudetsky. In its first week of 8 performances, the show brought in $364,575, which represents 32.4% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $197, the average paid admission was $55.80, and the average audience capacity was filled up to 68.2%. Both of these shows likely had grosses affected by a first preview with a large number of complimentary tickets given to friends of the production. Furthermore, both have several weeks of previews left to build word of mouth before reviews come out and impact grosses to come.

The Following are the Broadway Ticket Sales Numbers for the Week Ending February 14, 2016:

Broadway ticket sales raw data are provided courtesy of The Broadway League All other data, text, opinion, charts and commentary are copyright © 2016 nytix.com