By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on November 06, 2014 3:39 PM
This Was An Overall Slow Week For Broadway, With Most Shows Decreasing From Their Weekly Gross Of The Week Before. Two New Shows Began Previews.
New Shows This Week: “The River” And “Side Show”
In the week ending November 2, 2014, two new shows began previews. First, on October 28, 2014, Side Show began performances at the St. James Theatre. Playing six performances across this first week of recorded box office figures, Side Show grossed the unremarkable amount of $349,563, which represents only 39.67% of its gross potential.
With the maximum numbers of seats to fill being 7,818, ticketbuyers only ended up filling 5,696 of them. This goes to show that Side Show has been offering heavy discounts, as the average paid ticket was only $61.37, with a top ticket price of $197.00.
"The River" Opens With Extraordinary First Week
On the other hand, The River began performances with an extraordinary performance out of the gates. In its first week, it played only three performances, and yet it grossed $348,102, which represents 103.5% of the show’s gross potential.
With a top ticket price of $275.00, the show’s average paid ticket price was $161.01, which implies basically no discounting. Of the 2,088 seats to sell across these three performances, The River sold 2,162 of them, which seems physically impossible – and yet if anyone can achieve the impossible, it’s the team of Jez Butterworth and Hugh Jackman.
An Overall Slow Week For Broadway
This past week, the overall Broadway industry saw a decline in overall weekly gross of $2,393,852, earning a total of $23,464,674. This represents an average of $690,137 across all 34 shows presently running. This is a decrease of 10.20% from the week before. Of the 34 shows, 31 of them saw a decrease in weekly gross from the week before, whereas the only three that saw an increase were Disgraced, The River, and Side Show.
Of course, it must be noted that the latter two increased from $0 the week before, as they opened this past week, so they don’t really count. And Disgraced, which only increased by $45,861 from the week before, is the anomaly having increased its gross each of the six weeks in which it has been running. Still, at its peak this past week, it only reached 52.47% of its gross potential.
The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending November 2, 2014:
| Show | GrossGross | Total Attn | %Cap | AvgPdAdm |
| A DELICATE BALANCE | $850,150 | 6,416 | 100.00% | $132.50 |
| A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER | $757,811 | 7,061 | 97.31% | $107.32 |
| ALADDIN | $1,280,885 | 13,528 | 98.14% | $94.68 |
| BEAUTIFUL | $1,033,975 | 7,844 | 95.57% | $131.82 |
| CABARET | $611,122 | 5,474 | 76.62% | $111.64 |
| CHICAGO | $444,182 | 5,493 | 63.58% | $80.86 |
| CINDERELLA | $501,306 | 6,797 | 48.52% | $73.75 |
| DISGRACED | $408,008 | 5,538 | 75.41% | $73.67 |
| HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH | $498,001 | 5,413 | 76.79% | $92.00 |
| IF/THEN | $404,308 | 7,361 | 70.18% | $54.93 |
| IT’S ONLY A PLAY | $1,338,059 | 8,468 | 99.02% | $158.01 |
| JERSEY BOYS | $675,647 | 6,782 | 69.04% | $99.62 |
| KINKY BOOTS | $1,100,572 | 9,904 | 86.94% | $111.12 |
| LES MISÉRABLES | $608,589 | 7,224 | 64.09% | $84.25 |
| LOVE LETTERS | $258,377 | 3,961 | 46.36% | $65.23 |
| MAMMA MIA! | $602,891 | 7,247 | 77.69% | $83.19 |
| MATILDA | $760,087 | 9,441 | 82.41% | $80.51 |
| MOTOWN THE MUSICAL | $855,012 | 8,993 | 74.59% | $95.08 |
| ON THE TOWN | $675,371 | 8,749 | 58.36% | $77.19 |
| ONCE | $341,135 | 4,836 | 57.08% | $70.54 |
| PIPPIN | $377,838 | 5,026 | 63.46% | $75.18 |
| ROCK OF AGES | $278,848 | 3,476 | 74.53% | $80.22 |
| SIDE SHOW | $349,563 | 5,696 | 72.86% | $61.37 |
| THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,535,238 | 8,751 | 102.61% | $175.44 |
| THE COUNTRY HOUSE | $217,819 | 3,565 | 68.56% | $61.10 |
| THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME | $862,004 | 7,911 | 97.14% | $108.96 |
| THE LAST SHIP | $495,069 | 6,333 | 58.68% | $78.17 |
| THE LION KING | $1,700,190 | 13,395 | 98.49% | $126.93 |
| THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA | $724,322 | 8,848 | 68.91% | $81.86 |
| THE REAL THING | $433,827 | 5,765 | 97.38% | $75.25 |
| THE RIVER | $348,102 | 2,162 | 103.54% | $161.01 |
| THIS IS OUR YOUTH | $294,214 | 4,058 | 47.81% | $72.50 |
| WICKED | $1,329,813 | 12,097 | 83.59% | $109.93 |
| YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU | $512,339 | 5,656 | 65.89% | $90.58 |
| Totals: | $23,464,671 | 239,269 | 77.09% | $95.19 |
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
