By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on April 14, 2015 1:51 PM
In The Week Ending April 12, 2015, The Audience And Fish In The Dark Performed Well. While Airline Highway, Living On Love, And The Visit Performed Poorly.
Two Plays Still Going Strong: “The Audience” And “Fish In The Dark”
In the week ending April 12, 2015, two straight plays are still playing in the big leagues. With weekly grosses beat out only by the top five high grossing musicals, these two plays are beating all odds against straight plays and performing very well financially many weeks into their runs.
The Audience starring Helen Mirren in the role of Queen Elizabeth II brought in $1,143,548 this past week, which represents 108.18% of its gross potential. With the exception of only one week, The Audience has been in the millionaire’s club every full performance week since it began previews on February 14, 2015.
Helen Mirren Stars In "The Queen"
This past week, with a top ticket price of $323.00, the average paid admission was $151.56, showing that fans of the film The Queen, as well as history buffs and those who love Helen Mirren, are paying more than full price to see this play. Furthermore, Larry David’s Fish in the Dark brought in $1,169,986 in the week ending April 12, 2015.
That represents a remarkable 112.41% of the show’s gross potential. With a top ticket price of $497.00, the average paid admission was $134.17, and the average audience capacity was at 101.6%. This play wins out because of the event nature of the show, as Larry David is not a usual face on Broadway, but he certainly has national acclaim.
Three Plays Struggling: “Airline Highway,” “Living On Love,” And “The Visit”
This past week, three shows that played full performance weeks of eight shows brought in barely enough to stay afloat. First of all, Airline Highway, a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, brought in only $143,150, which represents 24.29% of its gross potential. The average paid admission was only $37.42, and the audience was filled up to an average of 76.3%.
As the next lowest performing show this past week, Living on Love brought in $198,392. This play stars opera singer Renee Fleming in a play based off of Peccadillo by Garson Kanin. With an average paid admission of $34.18, the show reached 20.73% of its gross potential, and had an average audience capacity of 67.6%.
Cutthroat Broadway Season
In addition, The Visit starring Chita Rivera brought in only $224,289, which represents 29.41% of the show’s gross potential. With an average audience capacity of 71.5%, the average paid admission was $43.19, despite a top ticket price of $225.00.
These three shows will need to up their numbers if they are to compete in this cutthroat Broadway season, and so far it is not looking good. Fortunately for at least Airline Highway, that is produced by a not-for-profit institution that can afford to take in low numbers due to the endowment subsiding the production.
The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending April 12, 2015:
| Show Name | GrossGross | TotalAttn | %Capacity | AvgPdAdm |
| A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER | $712,576 | 7,149 | 98.53% | $99.67 |
| AIRLINE HIGHWAY | $143,150 | 3,825 | 76.26% | $37.42 |
| ALADDIN | $1,768,354 | 13,786 | 100.01% | $128.27 |
| AN AMERICAN IN PARIS | $826,417 | 11,559 | 98.35% | $71.50 |
| BEAUTIFUL | $1,057,902 | 7,890 | 96.13% | $134.08 |
| CHICAGO | $612,057 | 7,128 | 82.50% | $85.87 |
| DOCTOR ZHIVAGO | $535,584 | 8,920 | 75.44% | $60.04 |
| FINDING NEVERLAND | $1,129,481 | 12,040 | 102.31% | $93.81 |
| FISH IN THE DARK | $1,169,986 | 8,720 | 101.58% | $134.17 |
| FUN HOME | $401,034 | 5,239 | 98.33% | $76.55 |
| GIGI | $635,256 | 8,637 | 77.67% | $73.55 |
| HAND TO GOD | $282,901 | 5,431 | 86.81% | $52.09 |
| HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH | $437,941 | 4,711 | 66.83% | $92.96 |
| IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU | $402,840 | 7,683 | 95.65% | $52.43 |
| IT’S ONLY A PLAY | $694,877 | 7,430 | 86.23% | $93.52 |
| JERSEY BOYS | $808,116 | 8,231 | 83.78% | $98.18 |
| KINKY BOOTS | $1,082,034 | 10,614 | 93.17% | $101.94 |
| LES MISÉRABLES | $919,372 | 10,373 | 92.02% | $88.63 |
| LIVING ON LOVE | $198,392 | 5,804 | 67.61% | $34.18 |
| MAMMA MIA! | $766,214 | 8,438 | 90.46% | $90.81 |
| MATILDA | $1,248,351 | 11,429 | 99.76% | $109.23 |
| ON THE TOWN | $752,482 | 10,755 | 71.74% | $69.97 |
| ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY | $517,707 | 5,667 | 98.11% | $91.35 |
| SKYLIGHT | $749,843 | 6,403 | 99.80% | $117.11 |
| SOMETHING ROTTEN! | $619,159 | 9,310 | 99.03% | $66.50 |
| THE AUDIENCE | $1,143,548 | 7,545 | 100.83% | $151.56 |
| THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,517,969 | 8,746 | 102.56% | $173.56 |
| THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME | $811,321 | 7,912 | 97.15% | $102.54 |
| THE HEIDI CHRONICLES | $368,596 | 4,934 | 61.61% | $74.71 |
| THE KING AND I | $761,311 | 8,376 | 100.00% | $90.89 |
| THE LION KING | $2,293,061 | 13,436 | 98.79% | $170.67 |
| THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA | $1,097,215 | 10,482 | 81.64% | $104.68 |
| THE VISIT | $224,289 | 5,193 | 72.04% | $43.19 |
| WICKED | $2,181,861 | 14,678 | 96.01% | $148.65 |
| WOLF HALL PARTS ONE & TWO | $594,758 | 8,525 | 77.05% | $69.77 |
| Totals | $29,465,955 | 296,999 | 89.31% | $93.83 |
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
