Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 10/1/23

Those Merrily numbers are making me happier than ever!

hearthemsing22 said: "I hate to say this but what do we think will close first, Hadestown or Kimberly?"

Probably Hadestown. It had a good run. Let it continue to tour and push more for its West End transfer.

hearthemsing22 said: "I hate to say this but what do we think will close first, Hadestown or Kimberly?"

Here Lies Love, they're hemorrhaging money and the TV performance from last week did not work.

KA will last until the end of the year imo

End of year closings are becoming much clearer. Kimberly, Shucked, Hadestown, Here Lies Love are all but sure things to be left behind in 2023. A Beautiful Noise remains an oddball, but I think we can all agree that Ken Davenport isn't closing that show while it grosses what it's started taking in this Fall.

Thoughts:

• I cannot believe the average ticket price for A Beautiful Noise. Given that it is only 2/3 filled, that it just so unusual to me. I guess I was very wrong that adding a fourth matinee not helping that much OR the audience consists of a lot of older people who vacate the city and near-by suburbs during the summer. I NEVER expected this to run as long as it has. Tells me that it will be very successful on tour, beyond just the subscription based. I could see them scheduling a second week in cities which only have second weeks on a limited basis.
• I am really disappointed the PV has such a low average ticket price. So heavily discounted and still less than 3/4 filled with those reviews. I am hoping that next year will see a big bump, since the grosses did go up $100K this week, even with that average price.
• I don't understand why HLL and Shark don't give up...they are just going to lose more money, which is idiotic. I also suspect that Mellissa Etheridge is going to be the same thing...good money after bad.
• Hadestown is doing $145K less than Chicago, without any stunt casting. It is time...they should put up the notice and hope for a little bum in business.
• It will be interesting to see if Merrily can sustain those grosses, i.e., will this go the way of other past Sondheim shows and peter out quickly after awhile or will it stay very strong for at least the current limited engagement. I imagine the reviews will help, as will the presence of Groff and, especially, Radcliffe. Fingers crossed.
• The producers of BTTF must be dying. It is only grossing $1MM a week and must have a very high breakeven. Given that the average ticket price is already only $103, I am guessing that they are going to end up losing most of their investment. While I don't care about that particular show, that trend over the last two seasons continues to be very unsettling.
• I am assuming that one of the reasons there is such a dearth of new non-musicals is because of how badly the fall's well reviewed shows did last season, other than Leopoldstadt. The grosses for the only non-musicals that are actually running, i.e., JaJa's, Shark, The Cottage,and PV (at least so far) are just awful, continuing the problem (I still have hope for PV).

Jarethan said: "Thoughts:

• I cannot believe the average ticket price for A Beautiful Noise. Given that it is only 2/3 filled, that it just so unusual to me. I guess I was very wrong that adding a fourth matinee not helping that much OR the audience consists of a lot of older people who vacate the city and near-by suburbs during the summer. I NEVER expected this to run as long as it has. Tells me that it will be very successful on tour, beyond just the subscription based. I could see them scheduling a second week in cities which only have second weeks on a limited basis.
• I am really disappointed the PV has such a low average ticket price. So heavily discounted and still less than 3/4 filled with those reviews. I am hoping that next year will seea big bump, since the grosses did go up $100K this week, even with that average price.
• I don't understand why HLL and Shark don't give up...they are just going to lose more money, which is idiotic. I also suspect that Mellissa Etheridge is going to be the same thing...good money after bad.
• Hadestown is doing $145K less than Chicago, without any stunt casting. It is time...they should put up the notice and hope for a little bum in business.
• It will be interesting to see if Merrily can sustain those grosses, i.e., will this go the wayof other past Sondheim shows and peter out quickly after awhile or will it stay very strong for at least the current limited engagement. I imagine the reviews will help, as will the presence of Groff and, especially, Radcliffe. Fingers crossed.
• The producers of BTTF must be dying. It is only grossing $1MM a week and must have a very high breakeven. Given that the average ticket price is already only $103, I am guessing that they are going to end up losing most of their investment. While I don't care about that particular show, that trend over the last two seasons continues to be very unsettling.
• I am assuming that one of the reasons there is such a dearth of new non-musicals is because of how badly the fall's well reviewed shows did last season, other than Leopoldstadt. The grosses for the only non-musicals that are actually running, i.e., JaJa's, Shark, The Cottage,andPV (at least so far) are just awful, continuing the problem (I still have hope for PV).

"

ABN is also a mystery to me, I just can't see myself paying $146 for that but good for them! BTTF is definitely an interesting situation, they've been clearly losing money for the past few weeks and attendance seemed to be decreasing abruptly. I wonder if the holidays will boost sales, but I don't think those numbers are what they were expecting.

HLL is the next show to close, it's silly to keep losing money this way, same applies to 'Shark is broken'. Regarding Merrily..., I believe it'll keep those numbers or even better ones. I know people that are only seeing it because of Radcliffe, they don't know the rest of the cast or what the musical is about. Lastly, not to sound too pessimist but PV is doomed despite great reviews imo.

Updated On: 10/3/23 at 01:57 PM

BTTF needs to drop the Wednesday matinee and move to a more family friendly 4 show weekend schedule during off-peak tourist season. It has been theorized that their breakeven is 1 million so they are beginning to tread water leading up to the holiday season which I'm sure will be gangbusters. I am surprised however that the weather on Friday is not reflected more in last week's grosses, I know I didn't go outside!

scripps said: "BTTF needs to drop the Wednesday matinee and move to a more family friendly 4 show weekend schedule during off-peak tourist season. It has been theorized that their breakeven is 1 million so they are beginning to tread water leading up to the holiday season which I'm sure will be gangbusters. I am surprised however that the weather on Friday is not reflected more in last week's grosses, I know I didn't go outside!"

I guess that anything sold in advanced stayed mostly sold. Even if they are given the option to see the show another time, subject to availability, I assume the sold tickets would be reflected in last week’s gross.

To Pablitonizer, someone posted a couple of weeks ago that there are a lot of potential bad weeks in the next 13 weeks; if they start losing money, it will be interesting to see if the three weeks of great grosses will offset those losses. If business does slide below $1MM regularly, I wonder if they will call it a day or struggle to the next holiday. Have to admit that I have not seen this, and I have no interest in seeing it, so I will only be sad because another high profile musical is flopping.

Jarethan said: "scripps said: "BTTF needs to drop the Wednesday matinee and move to a more family friendly 4 show weekend schedule during off-peak tourist season. It has been theorized that their breakeven is 1 million so they are beginning to tread water leading up to the holiday season which I'm sure will be gangbusters. I am surprised however that the weather on Friday is not reflected more in last week's grosses, I know I didn't go outside!"

I guess that anything sold in advanced stayed mostly sold. Even if they are given the option to see the show another time, subject to availability, I assume the sold tickets would be reflected in last week’s gross.

To Pablitonizer, someone posted a couple of weeks ago that there are a lot of potential bad weeks in the next 13 weeks; if they start losing money, it will be interesting to see if the three weeks of great grosses will offset those losses. If business does slide below $1MM regularly, I wonder if they will call it a day or struggle to the next holiday. Have to admit that I have not seen this, and I have no interest in seeing it, so I will only be sad because another high profile musical is flopping.

"

I guess It's an okay musical, just to see it one time. Amazing effects, but the rest is pretty forgettable. It was one of the first musical I checked my watch to see how long till the show was over. Weird reaction from me because I'm a huge BTTF fan, but I seriously wanted it to be over lol. I must confess I was expecting it to gross above $ 1,500,000 weekly since it's such an iconic IP and worldwide popular. Can't believe it's doing a lot lower than MJ

B212323 said: "hearthemsing22 said: "I hate to say this but what do we think will close first, Hadestown or Kimberly?"

Unfortunately I think Here Lies Love will be first. I heard the others are holding out for holiday rush - same with shucked."

I wonder whether any of the will justify the losses just to get holiday week bumps, some of which are less than stellar.

OhHiii said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "It would be totally ironic ifMerrilyturns a profit while every other musical from this season ends up flopping."

New musicals, yes. Both Sondheim revivals from last season will have recouped by the time of closing (Sweeney is on it's way to recouping this fall) and Parade had to have recouped as well given their successful run."

I'm talking about the 2023-24 season, not 2022-23.

Has anyone addressed my question about Six? It dropped down to $700,000. Should there be cause for concern?