Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 1/1/23 — Page 2

The Music Man has recorded total gross receipts of :
Total Current Gross: $153,448,869.47 (Per Playbill)

It looks like it can hit $ 160 Million when the show closes on January 15, 2023.

BCfitasafiddle said: "Fabulous week! How great for Broadway. I hope next week isn't a huge let down."

Girl…

Strictly from a numbers standpoint, every show that did 9 perfs last week will plunge this week because they'll have 8 or 7 perfs. Add to that thousands fewer tourists and people being tighter with pocket books after Christmas.

At best, this winter will be as bad as any other on Broadway; at worst, we'll see a mass exodus of shows hoping to limp through to June.

Updated On: 1/4/23 at 01:22 AM

Hamilton being out of the top 5 is quite a red herring given they performed 8 shows and all of the top 5 performed 9. This week is always an outlier due to the varying performance schedules show to show.


All in all a great thing to see after the doldrums of Omicron last year.

How much do shows operating costs go up when they add a ninth performance in the week? Is it a substantial amount?

Call_me_jorge said: "How much do shows operating costs go up when they add a ninth performance in the week? Is it a substantial amount?"

Per the actors equity contract during the weeks between Christmas and New Years so long as the actors are off for either Christmas Eve or Christmas day they are allowed to do a 7 performance week and a 9 performance week in either order, like we saw last week, with no additional overtime costs incurred. I'd assume the same is true for at least 90% of those working on the production. As such both the 7 and 9 performance weeks cost producers the same amount as a standard 8 show week. Due to the fact that both weeks cost producers the same amount of money we need to combine this weeks and last weeks grosses for shows that did 7 shows last week and 9 this week and divide by two to see how much the show truly benefitted from the 9th performance.

The exception to this is Equity does allow if I understand correctly 2 additional 9 performance weeks throughout the year without requiring the week proceeding or following to only consist of 7 performances. In this circumstances all actors receive overtime for the 9th performance, equating to 2/8's their weekly salary. I am assuming the same is true for all of the other unions, so during these weeks in order to have a 9th performance producers have to pay for 10 performances. Due to these additional costs productions that utilize this stipulation are typically long running productions that have consistent sales patterns where producers know when there is enough demand to justify/offset these additional running costs. As such we typically only see Disney productions and Wicked utilize this stipulation on a regular basis in July (peak tourist season), Easter, or Thanksgiving. Note it also is not uncommon for long running productions to also do a 9 performance week during the weeks of Easter and Thanksgiving, especially if they are more family oriented.

Other shows will also use the stipulation depending on how the New Years Eve falls on the Calendar due to school vacations. A basic rule of thumb is if New Years Eve falls on Friday or Saturday most shows will do 7 performances during the week of Christmas and a 9 performances during the week of New Years. If New Years Eve falls on a Sunday most shows will just do typical 8 performance during both the weeks of Christmas and New Years Day. Lastly if New Years Eve falls on a Monday-Thursday shows will do a 8 performances during the week of Christmas and 9 performances during the week of New Years.

I am not being sarcastic when I say this thread is a fascinating insight into the holiday week performances. Thank you to everyone who knows so much about this!

While it didn’t run for forever, School of Rock did announce recoupment in May of 2017, taking a little more than 2 years to hit that mark, and then still ran for more than another year and a half, closing in January of 2019. So it’s been less than a decade since Lloyd Webber had a new hit show on Broadway.

These figures (on the whole) are a much needed shot in the arm for Broadway, but at the same time it just shows how exorbitantly expensive Broadway tickets have become, which you can get away with over the Christmas / New Year holiday period, but when else? I do think that’s worrying for the future, especially when there’s a worldwide cost of living crisis and NY is prohibitively expensive for many now. A night out at the theater has become a luxury.

Auggie27 said: "As a friend noted (who attended), two of the three Benko performances were intended to be Michele's, and the last minute (same day) change should be considered. Most folks who buy holiday week tickets make special plans -- it's often event theatergoing -- and don't have the luxury of seeking refunds. My friend from out of town didn't*. It's great for the show, and for Broadway, that Benko is now considered more than a decent standby. But Funny Girl's numbers went up because that was a hot week to purchase often expensive seats.



*Michele canceled the two Friday shows incrementally. Someone on Instagram swapped out her matinee seat for the evening, only to find out that Benko was to cover that one, too, when she arrived."

That’s true. My friends had tickets to Funny Girl on Sunday Jan 1st and they were aware she was out both performances on Dec 30th. When my friends arrived at the theater, they asked about how the refund process works in case Lea is not able to perform last minute. They were told it’s ok to get a refund if anyone above the title is not performing as long as their ticket has not been scanned.
They waited until 5 mins before curtain to scan their tickets since by then likelihood of Lea still performing is high.

WestEndGal said: "These figures (on the whole) are a much needed shot in the arm for Broadway, but at the same time it just shows how exorbitantly expensive Broadway tickets have become, which you can get away with over the Christmas / New Year holiday period, but when else? I do think that’s worrying for the future, especially when there’s a worldwide cost of living crisis and NY is prohibitively expensive for many now. A night out at the theater has become a luxury."

To me, a night out at a Broadway theater has always been a luxury given there are so many other cheaper options for live theater in nyc.

I agree Broadway tickets are expensive during its peak/busy season for sure! That’s why my friends only watched 1 Broadway show last week (they did watch other concerts and off bway shows though that were more affordable.)