By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on March 03, 2015 2:34 PM
In The Week Ending March 1, 2015, Broadway Had A Fairly Slow Week. The Heidi Chronicles Began Previews With Disappointing Ticket Sales.
“The Heidi Chronicles” Not An Immediate Hit
In its first week of previews, the new revival of The Heidi Chronicles brought in a weekly gross of $305,345, which represents only 34.26% of its gross potential. The show began previews on February 23, 2015, and therefore this first week was a full week of eight performances.
With a top ticket price of $223.00, the average paid admission was only $51.05, and despite this heavy amount of discounting, the audience capacity was only on average 74.7% full.
Hopeful Reviews Drive An Increase In Ticket Sales
This comes as a slight surprise due to the high-profile stars on the marquee such as Elisabeth Moss, Jason Biggs, and Bryce Pinkham, in addition to the acclaim of the playwright Wendy Wasserstein, as well as the fact that the play is a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama.
Directed by Pam MacKinnon (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), the play is set to open on March 19, 2015. Perhaps when the reviews hit the presses, more audience members will become aware of this new production. The fact that New York still feels like it is in the midst of winter may have been a dissuading factor for ticket buyers, and hopefully sales will pick up as the run proceeds.
An Overall Slow Week On Broadway
In the week ending March 1, 2015, Broadway was in a bit of a slump. Despite the month of March having arrived, the city is still steeped in winter and more snow is expected this week. This may be one of the main reasons that the overall demand on Broadway is not particularly high. This past week, of all the shows running on Broadway, only six experienced an increase in ticket sales.
One of these was The Heidi Chronicles, which, as just discussed, was a new show that performed fairly poorly in its first week. Another one was Constellations, which did experience an increase in weekly gross of $61,504, but that is due to that fact that the show played nine performances that week, up from the usual eight.
"Fish In The Dark" Performing Exceptionally
With that in mind, the show is still not doing excellently, as it only reached 80.59% of its gross potential across the nine performances. In its last week of performances, Disgraced saw an increase of $82,172, bringing its final weekly gross to $415,237, which is only 53.39% of its gross potential.
Besides the usual suspects, the only plays that are performing extraordinarily are Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, which had a weekly gross of $1,159,537, and The Audience starring Helen Mirren, which brought in a weekly gross of $1,090,479.
The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending March 1, 2015:
| Show Name | GrossGross | Total Attn | %Capacity | AvgPdAdm |
| A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER | $544,615 | 5,571 | 76.78% | $97.76 |
| ALADDIN | $1,198,904 | 13,452 | 97.59% | $89.12 |
| BEAUTIFUL | $1,019,934 | 7,577 | 92.31% | $134.61 |
| CABARET | $674,524 | 6,043 | 84.59% | $111.62 |
| CHICAGO | $474,672 | 6,031 | 69.80% | $78.71 |
| CONSTELLATIONS | $661,547 | 5,753 | 98.34% | $114.99 |
| DISGRACED | $415,237 | 5,316 | 72.39% | $78.11 |
| FISH IN THE DARK | $1,159,537 | 8,720 | 101.58% | $132.97 |
| HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH | $585,799 | 5,374 | 76.24% | $109.01 |
| HONEYMOON IN VEGAS | $284,648 | 4,450 | 48.37% | $63.97 |
| IF/THEN | $503,433 | 7,111 | 67.80% | $70.80 |
| IT’S ONLY A PLAY | $493,244 | 5,432 | 63.05% | $90.80 |
| JERSEY BOYS | $579,183 | 6,230 | 63.42% | $92.97 |
| KINKY BOOTS | $804,924 | 8,442 | 74.10% | $95.35 |
| LES MISÉRABLES | $571,871 | 7,705 | 68.36% | $74.22 |
| MAMMA MIA! | $413,270 | 5,633 | 60.39% | $73.37 |
| MATILDA | $701,215 | 8,783 | 76.67% | $79.84 |
| ON THE TOWN | $407,366 | 6,089 | 40.61% | $66.90 |
| ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY | $377,072 | 5,098 | 88.26% | $73.96 |
| THE AUDIENCE | $1,090,479 | 7,512 | 100.39% | $145.16 |
| THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,433,408 | 8,741 | 102.50% | $163.99 |
| THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME | $660,205 | 6,398 | 78.56% | $103.19 |
| THE HEIDI CHRONICLES | $305,345 | 5,981 | 74.69% | $51.05 |
| THE LION KING | $1,490,989 | 13,036 | 95.85% | $114.37 |
| THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA | $561,366 | 7,269 | 56.61% | $77.23 |
| WICKED | $1,204,467 | 11,905 | 82.26% | $101.17 |
| Totals | $18,617,251 | 189,652 | 77.37% | $95.59 |
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
