By Joanne Von Furstenburg | Posted on March 15, 2017 4:13 PM
There Are So Many Broadway Shows Coming Out This Spring Including Amélie, A New Musical And The Play That Goes Wrong, Causing The Industry To Take A Huge Leap
Four New Shows This Week Give Overall Box Office a Boost
In the week ending March 12, 2017, the Broadway box office shifted into high gear as the spring season is underway. This past week, four new shows began previews. First, on March 7, 2017, War Paint began previews at the Nederlander Theatre. In its first week of seven preview performances, this new musical starring Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole brought in a weekly gross of $800,448, which represents 72.6% of its gross potential.
With a top ticket price of $248.00, the average paid admission was $107.80, and the audience was filled up to 90.8% of its capacity. With weeks to go before the musical’s opening night on April 6, 2017, War Paint is showing strong promise of audience demand.
Broadway Debut Shows Promise for "Amélie, A New Musical"
Then, on March 9, 2017, two new shows began previews: Amélie, A New Musical and The Play That Goes Wrong. Of the two, Amélie had better performance in its first week of four previews. That show brought in a weekly gross of $377,025, which represents 74.9% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $251.00, the average paid admission was $104.24, and the audience was filled up to 97.5% of its capacity.
With strong brand recognition from the successful French film of the same name, and with strong Broadway buzz for the lead actress, Phillipa Soo of the original cast of Hamilton, Amélie has a strong chance of building an audience, as long as the reviews are positive upon its opening night on April 3, 2017.
A Closer Look At "The Play That Goes Wrong"
As for The Play That Goes Wrong, this British transfer brought in a weekly gross of $187,198 over 4 performances, which represents 56.8% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $173.00, the average paid admission was $55.35, and the audience was filled up to 92.5%. With no known stars in the cast, this comedy will likely need some for buzz to spread. Finally, on March 10, 2017, Noël Coward’s Present Laughter began previews at the St. James Theatre, starring Kevin Kline.
Over the course of two performances, the revival brought in a weekly gross of $255,521, representing 75.6% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $275.00, the average paid admission was $99.46, and the audience was filled up to 91.9% of its capacity. While two performances is not enough to set a pattern, Present Laughter may very well be able to catch hold of the Broadway ticket-buying market on the back of its excellent cast and well-known title.
Entire Broadway Industry Leaps By 3.8 Million Dollars
With four new shows added to the mix this past week, Broadway took a great leap forward. In comparison to the week before, the entire industry went up by $3,852,732. In addition, the audience among all the Broadway theatres was filled up to an average of 88.63% of capacity, in comparison to 86.51% of capacity the week before. Interestingly, however, of the 28 shows that were running this past week and the week prior, the average weekly gross per show went down from $916,265 this previous week to $864,864 this week.
Therefore, it is clear that a large portion of this week’s boost is due to the four new shows. Besides those new shows, the biggest increase was seen by Hamilton, which brought in a weekly gross of $3,145,636, which is an increase of $310,537 in comparison to the week before. This is therefore the sixth time that Hamilton has crossed the $3 million mark, a feat that is proving to be increasingly common for this mega-hit musical.
