Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 2/15/2015

Two New Shows: “The Audience” And “On The Twentieth Century”

In the week ending February 15, 2015, two new shows began previews on Broadway. The first, On the Twentieth Century, began performances on February 13, 2015, and played four times in this first week. Starring Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher, this musical revival with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a score by Cy Coleman, is produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company at their American Airlines Theatre.

In the first four performances, it had mediocre box office performance, bringing in $228,661 which represents 56.95% of the show’s gross potential that week. With an average paid admission of $80.04, the show filled up 96.5% of the seats, which shows a fair amount of discounting. The next night, The Audience began performances on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2015, at the Gerald Scheonfeld Theatre.

Helen Mirren Stars In Queen Elizabeth II

Starring Helen Mirren in the role of Queen Elizabeth II, whom she won an Academy Award for portraying in the film The Queen also written by Peter Morgan, brought in a huge audience and box office response. In the first two previews, the show brought in $331,101, which is 111.21% of the gross potential.

With a top ticket price of $293.00, and an average paid admission of $153.22, the show had standing room only with no discounting whatsoever. This is testament to the popularity of Helen Mirren, especially in this acclaimed role, along with excellent producing by the Brits who brought the show over the Atlantic.

An Overall Excellent Week Of Box Office Sales

Of the 28 shows that had performances in the week ending February 15, 2015, all but one experienced an increase in box office from the week before. That show, Constellations, saw a decrease in sales of $39,530, bringing in a weekly gross of $491,055, which is not too bad at a gross potential of 71.75%.

As for the rest of Broadway, every single show increased in ticket sales. One major reason may be that this week included Valentine’s Day, which was conveniently on a Saturday night. Not only is Broadway an excellent idea for date night, but the weekend positioning opened up the opportunity for Valentine’s associated dates to take place in five separate performance slots.

Long-Running Shows Still On Top

The top earning shows were, as expected, The Lion King with a gross of $1,726,042, The Book of Mormon with a gross of $1,648,502, Wicked with a gross of $1,586,692, Aladdin with a gross of $1,489,612, and Beautiful which brought in $1,132,369.

Excellent sales were also seen by The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper, with a weekly gross of $1,113,192. That show is one week from closing, and has also been offering less than full performance weeks due to Cooper’s schedule (last week they only played six), causing intense demand for this show during its limited engagement.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending February 15, 2015:

Broadway ticket sales raw data are provided courtesy of The Broadway League All other data, text, opinion, charts and commentary are copyright © 2015 nytix.com