By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on October 24, 2014 1:15 PM
In The Week Ending October 19, 2014, It’s Only A Play Saw An Increase In Sales, Continuing Their Sell-Out Run. Overall The Industry Saw A Decrease In Sales.
A Record-Breaking Week For “It’s Only A Play”
In a week where the majority of Broadway shows had a decreased gross from the week before, It’s Only a Play is on the up and up. This revival of a Terrence McNally play directed by Jack O’Brien is chock full of stars, including Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Megan Mullaly, F. Murray Abraham, Rupert Grint, and Stockard Channing.
In that light, this show is a paradigm example of movie stars selling tickets, because those tickets are selling at a phenomenal rate. In the week ending October 19, 2014, It’s Only a Play brought in $1,375,481, which is an increase of $1,173,897 from the week before.
Movie Stars Sell Tickets
That represents 104.34% of its gross potential, with an average ticket price of $159.02 and a top ticket price of $225.00. Furthermore, that gross is a weekly record for the show, which began performances on August 28, 2014 and officially opened on October 9, 2014 to mixed reviews.
Prior to this past week, the highest weekly gross for It’s Only a Play came in for the week ending September 21, 2014 at $1,277,059. The entire run for the play is supposedly close to sold out, and the show is scheduled to continue until January 4, 2015.
As The Season Progresses, A Move Away From The Summer Blockbusters
This past week demonstrated that as the weather is getting colder, there are fewer tourists flooding New York, and specifically buying tickets to the top summer musicals.
In the week ending October 19, 2014, Aladdin saw a gross decrease of $176,405, The Lion King went down by $155,070, Matilda decreased by $151,064, Wicked went down by $125,326, Hedwig and the Angry Inch went down by $118,386, and Cinderella decreased by $117,091.
Overall, Broadway Saw A Decrease In The Box Office
In fact, the entire Broadway industry saw a decrease of $1,072,660. There were some shows that experienced increases in gross, such as It’s Only a Play with a remarkable increase of $201,584, On the Town with a post-opening increase of $87,877, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time with an increase of $78,309.
These are all newer fare on the Great White Way, which demonstrates an increased interest in the buying practices of local New Yorkers. These people are more aware of the recent changes in Broadway offerings, rather than continually purchasing tickets to long-running shows.
The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending October 19, 2014:
| Show | GrossGross | Total Attn | %Cap | AvgPdAdm |
| A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER | $920,334 | 7,319 | 100.87% | $125.75 |
| ALADDIN | $1,438,023 | 13,750 | 99.75% | $104.58 |
| BEAUTIFUL | $1,308,749 | 8,271 | 100.77% | $158.23 |
| CABARET | $719,254 | 6,208 | 86.90% | $115.86 |
| CHICAGO | $574,653 | 7,071 | 81.84% | $81.27 |
| CINDERELLA | $643,770 | 8,384 | 59.85% | $76.79 |
| DISGRACED | $352,737 | 6,002 | 81.73% | $58.77 |
| HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH | $544,166 | 5,552 | 91.89% | $98.01 |
| IF/THEN | $627,377 | 7,788 | 74.26% | $80.56 |
| IT’S ONLY A PLAY | $1,375,481 | 8,650 | 101.15% | $159.02 |
| JERSEY BOYS | $860,751 | 8,208 | 83.55% | $104.87 |
| KINKY BOOTS | $1,363,976 | 11,024 | 96.77% | $123.73 |
| LES MISÉRABLES | $790,993 | 8,821 | 78.26% | $89.67 |
| LOVE LETTERS | $319,810 | 4,374 | 51.19% | $73.12 |
| MAMMA MIA! | $678,393 | 8,115 | 87.00% | $83.60 |
| MATILDA | $941,606 | 10,815 | 94.40% | $87.06 |
| MOTOWN THE MUSICAL | $1,074,895 | 10,768 | 89.32% | $99.82 |
| ON THE TOWN | $696,571 | 13,079 | 87.24% | $53.26 |
| ONCE | $448,800 | 5,162 | 60.93% | $86.94 |
| PIPPIN | $536,740 | 6,355 | 80.24% | $84.46 |
| ROCK OF AGES | $369,767 | 4,204 | 90.14% | $87.96 |
| THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,651,464 | 8,752 | 102.63% | $188.70 |
| THE COUNTRY HOUSE | $253,441 | 3,933 | 75.63% | $64.44 |
| THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME | $848,236 | 7,879 | 96.75% | $107.66 |
| THE LAST SHIP | $575,155 | 7,899 | 74.69% | $72.81 |
| THE LION KING | $1,895,200 | 13,414 | 98.63% | $141.29 |
| THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA | $935,841 | 10,843 | 84.45% | $86.31 |
| THE REAL THING | $475,917 | 5,620 | 94.93% | $84.68 |
| THIS IS OUR YOUTH | $409,597 | 5,796 | 68.28% | $70.67 |
| WICKED | $1,680,849 | 14,440 | 99.78% | $116.40 |
| YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU | $680,921 | 7,506 | 87.44% | $90.72 |
| Totals: | $25,993,464 | 256,002 | 85.85% | $98.61 |
Broadway ticket sales raw data are provided courtesy of The Broadway League All other data, text, opinion, charts and commentary are copyright © 2014 nytix.com
