Broadway Box Office Drops 31% To $18 Million During First Week Of New Year As Omicron Surges

Delete

Updated On: 1/11/22 at 01:49 PM

There should be just 25 Broadway shows operating now, correct? Skeleton Crew should be back and two plays closed and Mrs. Doubtfire is on hiatus. After this week, it'll be down to just 23 with Flying Over Sunset and Ain't Too Proud closing.

Sutton Ross said: "Brutal."

And it might get even worse in the coming weeks.

Nobody is seeing Chicago, either. There's almost no tourists in NYC now. The temps are supposed to very cold the next two weeks. Probably no tourists until Presidents' week/weekend. Surprised that Lion King is still selling well. Are New Yorkers really running to see that again?

I wouldn’t feel sorry for them. They can always cancel their tickets and then rebook for cheaper ones.

Can anybody tell me what Tina's strategy is? Do they have all the hotels recommending them so they get a lot of foot traffic right before show time? They have no discounts. It's never on TKTS. Yet it looks like it's not selling. Is Ticketmaster lying? Do they have millions of dollars in advance sales?

I can't figure it out.

Melissa25 said: "Jordan Catalano:And then you have shows like “Tina” that aren’t even trying anymore. Ticketmaster for tonight looks like maybe 15% of the house is sold and there’s not a discount code to be found for it.

So true. And the Broadway 2 for 1 code (BWAYUP) for Tina doesn't work. I tried it earlier on two different browsers and Ticketmaster message says "the code is incorrect."
"

At least the BWAYWK code works now for those few Broadway Weeks' 2-for-1. I'm interested but honestly, seeing the almost total availability every night is a deterrent. Why should I pay even at discount for a show playing to maybe 100 people? It just feels like it might be an eerie experience.

Sutton Ross said: "Can anybody tell me what Tina's strategy is? Do they have all the hotels recommending them so they get a lot of foot traffic right before show time? They have no discounts. It's never on TKTS. Yet it looks like it's not selling. Is Ticketmaster lying? Do they have millions of dollars in advance sales?

I can't figure it out."

It's so weird. It was a valiant attempt to see "are we better off with 300 people paying full price instead of 600 people discounted?" but obviously it's not working. I always feel bad for the actors in situations like this. They can see out into the house, and that show depends on an audience. It can't be cheap to run, either.

Excluding older shows whose financial situation is different, I remain surprised that Tina, North Country, and American Utopia haven't folded yet.

Tina is on TKTS now and has been fairly often since Adrienne left. I think it would be doing poorly by now even if pandemic didn't happen. It's just a bad musical.

I'm getting cautiously optimistic.

New York City case count numbers are plummeting from their peak during the first week of January. The city seems to be following the South Africa pattern, roughly. That doesn't mean things are fine yet, of course, because hospitalizations and deaths trail case counts (which are a bit unreliable these days). But big picture, I can easily imagine a spring that might seem downright hopeful.

That doesn't mean people will rush back into the New York City to see Broadway shows right away, of course. And of course, as we've learned, it doesn't mean there won't be some other variant or stupid policy choices.

But I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Plenty of damage will have been done, but there is also plenty of pent-up eagerness to travel and do stuff as well. I would love a chance for a NYC trip sometime this spring or summer.

(The rest of the country is running a few weeks behind, but the SF Bay Area - where I live - is showing signs of hitting a case count peak.)

I have been checking ticket availability for every performance of Phantom the past two weeks. It's not good. Especially last weekend, which I had hoped would be somewhat better with the holiday weekend, was dismal. There were no performances that sold more than 45% of their seats before the tix were taken off sale and most performances of Phantom only sold closer to 25-30% of their seats.

To be honest these grosses and attendance records doesnt surprise me one bit. There are three reasons that I’m hearing from out of city theatre goers that I know Who generally come into the city for a 10/12 show week trip.


They really aren’t interested in going into the theatre until:

1) the experience returns to something closer to what they had enjoyed before (no masks, return of a stage door, no tests before)

2) no vax proof requirement in the city

3) a return to a cleaner, safer city. A couple had gone back in October and were so disappointed to see their favourite city in such disrepair. They witnessed a gun holdup, heroin/drug injections. Garbage littering street. Broken window. They did not feel safe as they had.


and I know those reasons might be controversial I’m just sharing what input im hearing from theatre people I know.