“Mean Girls” Leads Broadway Into a Strong Week

Overall Box Office Went Up By $3 Million

This past week ending March 18, 2018, Broadway had a strong showing, led by new spring shows such as Mean Girls. Across the 30 shows that were running, the collective box office was $31,954,762, which is an increase of $2,997,052 from the week before. Whereas last week had a per-show average gross of $1,034,204, this past week had a slightly higher per-show average gross of $1,065,159. Across the board, this represents 79.39% of the industry’s gross potential. With an average top ticket price of $311.53, the average paid admission across all shows was $120.15, and the audience capacity was filled up to an average of 94.52%, which is an unusually high figure.

In contrast, the week before had an average audience capacity of 88.98%. Mean Girls, a new musical adaptation of the popular film, both of which are written by Tina Fey, started previews. The musical with lyrics by Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) and music by Jeff Richmond (“30 Rock”) played its first seven performances, bringing in a gross of $1,320,146, which represents 105.3% of its potential. With a top ticket price of $300, the average paid admission was $153.95, and the audience was filled up to 100.0% of its capacity.

In addition, another new show began performances this past week: My Fair Lady, which played four performances starting with its first preview on March 15, 2018. Over the course of these four performances, My Fair Lady brought in a weekly gross of $526,130, which represents 80.3% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $297.00, the average paid admission was $123.04, and the audience was filled up to 100.0% of its gross potential as well.

Long-Running Musicals Spike, Dear Evan Hansen Thrives, and Springsteen Steps Back

This past week saw increases across many of the long-running musicals. Wicked rose by $304,681 to reach a weekly gross of $1,877,627, which represents 105.5% of its gross potential. The Lion King went up by $250,844 to reach a weekly gross of $2,025,434, which represents 101.2%. The Phantom of the Opera went up by $249,656 to reach a weekly gross of $1,165,780, which represents 86.0% of its gross potential. Also, Aladdin went up by $180,452 to reach a weekly gross of $1,442,787, which represents 92.4% of its gross potential.

Tony Award winning musical Dear Evan Hansen continues to show excellent grosses, bringing in the highest percentage of gross potential of any show. While it just went up by $61,197 from the week before, it is bringing in consistently strong grosses, with this week’s gross amounting to $1,715,205, or 120.4% of gross potential. Hamilton also continues its streak, bringing in $3,151,020, which represents 108.8% of its gross potential. The biggest dip was seen by a major hit, Springsteen on Broadway, which went down by $471,195 to reach a weekly gross of $1,924,820, or 100.9% of its gross potential, due to fewer performances.