Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 11/09/2014

A Complete 180 From Last Week

Whereas the previous week was a particularly low one for the Broadway box office, the week ending November 9, 2014 was a complete turnaround.

Of the 35 shows presently running on Broadway, only three saw a decrease in sales from the week before: The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia! (which are both long-running musicals for which this slight decrease isn’t particularly significant), and The Country House (a play struggling to stay afloat).

Only Three Shows Saw Decrease From Last Week

Otherwise, the week was a serious improvement for most shows. In terms of increase from this week as compared to last week, the top earner was Jez Butterworth’s The River starring Hugh Jackman, which grossed $568,906 more this week than the week before (where it had only played its first partial week of 3 performances).

In its first full week of eight performances, The River grossed $917,008, representing 104.89% of its gross potential, and selling 102.7% of its seats across the week. The top grossing shows this past week were The Lion King at $1,737,729, The Book of Mormon at $1,638,827, Wicked at $1,621,169, Aladdin at $1,410,648, and It’s Only a Play at $1,375,174 – all of which showed a substantial increase from the week before.

New Show: “The Elephant Man”

The Elephant Man began previews on November 7, 2014, with just 4 performances in its first week. It has exited with a bang, having grossed $520,087 across four performances, which represents 113.36% of its gross capacity.

With a top ticket price of $298.00, the average paid ticket was a remarkable $163.45. Of the total 3,096 seats, there were somehow 3,182 of them sold. This show stars Bradley Cooper, a major Hollywood favorite who is well-known for his roles in such films as Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Place Beyond the Pines, and The Hangover Trilogy.

Bradley Cooper Brings In Audiences

He was nominated for Academy Awards for both Silver Linings Playbook (Best Actor) and American Hustle (Best Supporting Actor). In The Elephant Man, he plays a disfigured man in Britain who uses purely his own physicality, rather than makeup or special effects, to convey the disability. This is his second time on Broadway; his first was the role of Pip and Theo in 2006’s Three Days of Rain.