Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 12/17/17

[Rob]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:21pm

Click below to access all the Broadway grosses from all the shows for the week ending 12/17/2017 in BroadwayWorld's grosses section.

Also, you will find information on each show's historical grosses, cumulative grosses and other statistics on how each show stacked up this week and in the past.

Click Here to Visit the Broadway Grosses...

Up for the week by attendance was: FARINELLI AND THE KING (3.1%), M. BUTTERFLY (2.6%), CATS (1.1%), ANASTASIA (0.8%), HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (0.3%), ALADDIN (0.2%), THE BOOK OF MORMON (0.2%), COME FROM AWAY (0.1%),

Down for the week by attendance was: THE PARISIAN WOMAN (-13.2%), KINKY BOOTS (-12.7%), BEAUTIFUL (-8.3%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-7.1%), LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS (-7.0%), SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS (-6.6%), JUNK (-6.5%), CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (-5.8%), A BRONX TALE THE MUSICAL (-5.4%), THE CHILDREN (-5.3%), THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG (-3.9%), CHICAGO (-3.4%), WAITRESS (-3.2%), MISS SAIGON (-3.1%), SCHOOL OF ROCK (-2.8%), ONCE ON THIS ISLAND (-2.8%), METEOR SHOWER (-2.1%), WICKED (-1.7%), HELLO, DOLLY! (-0.3%), DEAR EVAN HANSEN (-0.1%),

Click Here to Visit the BroadwayWorld Grosses...

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:22pm

$70K for Home for the Holidays. Just...wow.

Looks like word of mouth is starting to affect Parisian Woman. Also, Lincoln Center picked a pretty bad flop with Junk.

At least SpongeBob is starting to pick up!

Updated On: 12/18/17 at 03:22 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:26pm

Any speculation on why Home for the Holidays didn't close yesterday?

And it doesn't look like the reviews or the parade turned Spongebob into a hit.

Updated On: 12/18/17 at 03:26 PM

[Fordham2015]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:31pm

Sad to see Parisian Woman's decline- I saw it Saturday and found it quite sharp and witty, with five strong performances.

My one quibble was with the projections, which seemed patently unneccessary

[little_sally]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:35pm

Glad to see Spongebob get a nice increase.

How could Home For the Holidays lose even more money!?

[HBBrock]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:39pm

Spongebob just opened 2 weeks ago....the reviews and the very positive word of mouth from everyone that sees it will help it going forward. People don’t read a review and buy tickets for the next few days - usually.

I do know people who bought tickets for January though.

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:42pm

Was the -$495 for Springsteen just a random comp ticket? lol

[haterobics]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:49pm

BroadwayConcierge said: "Also, Lincoln Center picked a pretty bad flop withJunk."

They're really putting the non-profit in non-profit.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:49pm

I am thinking that Spongebob needs to come up with a brilliant marketing campaign or it is not going to make it.  So too with Once On This Island if it is going to return its investment.  Re Spongebob, Frozen is just around the corner and, if it is well received, Spongebob will lose unless it is already a hit by that time.  Hopefully, I am wrong or they will come up with the marketing campaign.  Where is Ed Sullivan when we need him?  (I have to admit that I still have no interest in seeing it, but I certainly want any show that gets good reviews to have a chance).

Also, I am absolutely amazed at this point with Come From Away.  I liked it when I saw it early in the run, enjoy the cast recording even more, and still did not expect it to 'enter the zeitgeist' along with Evan Hansen last season.  You never know.  The interesting thing is that I still know people who won't see it because they 'don't want to be reminded of 9/11', despite being told how uplifting it is.

[haterobics]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:51pm

Jarethan said: "The interesting thing is that I still know people who won't see it because they 'don't want to be reminded of 9/11', despite being told how uplifting it is."

The more interesting thing is that saying you don't want to be reminded of 9/11 is in and of itself reminding yourself of 9/11.

[Daddy Warbucks]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 3:58pm

For a week where most shows took a dip, happy to see OOTI making a slight increase over last week.  I'm hopeful (and so far the numbers seem to be proving out) that this will continue to follow a very similar word of mouth path to success as Come From Away - which had very similar numbers in its initial weeks and gradually kept growing and growing as more people discovered how incredible of a show it is.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:09pm

newintown said: "Any speculation on whyHome for the Holidays didn't close yesterday?

And it doesn't look like the reviews or the parade turnedSpongebob into a hit."

The article about Home said that the producers were 100% behind it. One or more of them has put their money where there mouth was. (I don't think that is a speculative answer; there is no other.)

SpongeBob seems highly unlikely to succeed without some divine intervention. It is not true, as someone said, that people do not immediately buy tickets after the reviews; if they are ever going to, that is when the most noticeable spike will manifest. OOTI also seems rudderless. As stated below, both need massive marketing effort, but I just don't see how that translates into a survivable winter. Both have soft demand (evidence by the average ticket price), which actually makes OOTI the more vulnerable (even though its average is 1/3 higher) because the small house leaves less margin for error. 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:16pm

Warbucks2 said: "For a week where most shows took a dip, happy to see OOTI makinga slight increase over last week. I'm hopeful (and so far the numbers seem to be proving out) that this will continue to followa very similar word of mouth path to success as Come From Away - which had very similar numbers in its initial weeks and gradually kept growing and growing as more people discoveredhow incredible of a show it is."

Actually your memory is faulty on this one; much to my surprise, Come From Away sold out from the very first performance and has not had an empty seat since then.  You can see this by looking at the box office history for CFA.  Sellout from Day 1.

I am actually having a problem thinking of any big musicals in a long, long time that needed time to take off after slow early business, and really went on to became a hit.  Even Wicked did better that I remembered.  I thought it had a slow build, but looking at its first months, that slow build was in a matter of a couple of weeks after it opened, and the house was always close to filled from the first preview, in a larger theatre.

Looking t the long-run list, there appear to be a limited number that fit the bill, e.g., Smokey Joe's Cafe (big yuck IMO), Grease, Rock of Ages, and The Wiz.  An interesting thing to me is that every one of these shows attracted a lot of people who rarely go to the theatre.  Also,

-- 1776 may have fit the bill, but it was almost 50 years ago and received pretty much rapturous reviews AND appeared on Ed Sullivan.

-- Man of La Mancha, more than any show ever, probably owes its life to the Ed Sullivan show.  I still remember being a 15 year old kid bowled over by the 15 minutes that the Sullivan show provided.

 

So, maybe Spongebob's marketing campaign has to figure out how to attract people who don't usually go to the theatre??????????????

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:21pm

I am really amazed at the dire numbers for Home For The Holidays.  I cannot remember another show with such low weekly grosses.  What other shows have faced such low grosses in recent memory?  Also, I am in awe of "Aladdin's " numbers.  They're amazing.

Updated On: 12/18/17 at 04:21 PM

[bwayrose7]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:47pm

Jarethan said: "I am thinking that Spongebob needs to come up with a brilliant marketing campaign or it is not going to make it. So too with Once On This Island if it is going to return its investment. Re Spongebob,Frozen is just around the corner and, if it is well received, Spongebob will lose unless it is already a hit by that time."

It'll be interesting to see which shows end up losing audiences to Frozen. I agree that Spongebob will probably see a lot of its family-show audience drift away, and I'm curious to see if it siphons off any of Aladdin's audience as well. I could be totally wrong on this, but I feel like Frozen will have less impact on Anastasia than Mean Girls will - teenage and twentysomething women seem like the main audience for both.

I feel bad laughing at Home for the Holidays, because I'm sure people worked hard on it, but I can't help it at this point! Can't imagine why it's not closed yet - even on a holiday week, do they really think it's financially better to keep it open?

[HBBrock]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:47pm

Hogan....how do you know people didn’t buy Spongebob tickets for next week or for January or for the Spring?

 

 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:49pm

Really intrigued as to why HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS didn't close on Sunday. The producers claimed to be out of money and would close the show unless they saw a solid increase in their grosses. The show average 361 people per show. That's sad.

[HBBrock]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 4:49pm

Also....the first few months of Frozen have been sold out for ages. Spongebob isn’t suddenly losing its audience to Frozen, which was sold out for months well before Spongebob opened.

Updated On: 12/18/17 at 04:49 PM

[VotePeron]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:09pm

I stopped dead in my tracks on the subway platform Friday night when I saw a woman holding a Home For the Holidays playbill in one hand, and a bag FULL of merch in another hand. I had so many questions. 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:14pm

I don’t know if you asked those questions and if so what were they and what were her answers.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:17pm

Right...which could a big reason for it not taking off ...many families can only afford to see one show...at 600 for a family of 4.....for tickets only.   I think MOST families would rather shell it out for Frozen rather than Spongebob.

 

As far as ticket buyers after great reviews: if they are buying tickets after seeing them, they aren't necessarily buying them for the next few weeks...folks have a lot of plans already made this time of the year, so IF there was any sort of bump, it just might not be evident right away.

[Evans2]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:22pm

Spongebob needs a miracle.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:25pm

HBBrock said: "Hogan....how do you know people didn’t buy Spongebob tickets for next week or for January or for the Spring?"

Technically I don't. But I looked at a half dozen Saturday nights Jan-Mar and found a sea of blue dots. (And to be clear, when you say "people" I read that as a significant number of people. Obviously, some bought tickets.) And to be clear about something else, yes they could turn it around but it is going to take a lot of work and some luck (or miracles).

@ACL, I don't think the producers ever suggested that THEY were out of money (none of them are in need of our sympathy). The production, however, was, and would have needed an infusion of cash, which it apparently got from the 100% behind it club.

[JBC3]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:32pm

I thought Junk. was a solid B+ show, but I could see people uninterested in the topic since it has been addressed in several movies and they may be looking for lighter fare around the holidays in particular.

[Pauly3]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 5:38pm

Warbucks2 said: "For a week where most shows took a dip, happy to see OOTI makinga slight increase over last week. I'm hopeful (and so far the numbers seem to be proving out) that this will continue to followa very similar word of mouth path to success as Come From Away - which had very similar numbers in its initial weeks and gradually kept growing and growing as more people discoveredhow incredible of a show it is."

Jarethan said: "Actually your memory is faulty on this one; much to my surprise, Come From Away sold out from the very first performance and has not had an empty seat since then. You can see this by looking at the box office history for CFA. Sellout from Day 1."

The similarities between Come From Away and Once On This Island's first 5-6 weeks numbers are remarkably close.  Out of the gate, each show's Gross % Potential, Ave. Paid and Seat % Sold are all quite similar.