Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 4/26/2015

“The Heidi Chronicles” To Close Early

In the week ending April 26, 2015, The Heidi Chronicles brought in $313,425. This represents 35.17% of the show’s gross potential. Since the show began previews on February 23, 2015, and well past its opening on March 19, 2015, it has been struggling at the box office.

Its highest weekly gross came in the week ending April 12, 2015, when it brought in $368,596, which still only represents 41.36% of its gross potential. From one perspective, this is surprising, as the show stars Elisabeth Moss of “Mad Men” fame, and Jason Biggs of American Pie fame.

80 Performances Including Previews

Furthermore, this is the first major production of the beloved playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s works since she passed away. However, these ingredients are not enough for this competitive Broadway season, and the show’s producers have therefore announced that the show will close on May 3, 2015.

At that point, it will have played only 80 performances, including previews. This is in contrast to the 630 performances the play had in its run during 1989 - 1990. The show, which was capitalized at between $3.5 million and $4 million, will not recoup its initial investment.

Other Struggling Shows: “Airline Highway,” “Living On Love,” And “The Visit”

In addition, this past week, three shows that have recently begun performances are not demonstrating very much promise at the box office. The lowest weekly gross in the week ending April 26, 2015 was earned by Airline Highway, a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman theatre.

That show brought in only $126,468 this past week, which represents 23.44% of its gross potential. Still, it is discounting heavily, as it managed to fill 86.7% of the audience across the eight performances. The next lowest weekly gross this past week was earned by Living on Love, the Renee Fleming vehicle based off of Garson Kanin’s play Peccadillo, which was now re-written by Joe DiPietro. This past week, the show brought in only $155,646, which represents 16.26% of its gross potential.

Discounted Tickets Can't Fill Theatres

With a top available ticket price of $275.00, the average paid admission was only $26.05, and the average audience capacity was 69.6%. Comp tickets were available in as wide a marketplace as to include studentrush.org and many highly accessible papering sites.

Finally, the Chita Rivera starrer The Visit, written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, only brought in $180,105 this past week, which represents 23.62% of its gross potential. The average paid admission was only $34.45, and the average audience capacity was 72.5%. Time will tell whether these three shows can survive on Broadway much longer.