Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 12/18/22 — Page 2

Luminaire2 said: "Hamilton bested by Lion King this week (by total gross) - intriguing!

Top six (2-3 million club):

• Music Man
• Lion King
• Hamilton
• Wicked
• Phantom
• Funny Girl

"I look at that list and am sad. Four have run forever and two are packing them in only because of their stars. Looking at the numbers for most of the smaller and/or newer shows, it just makes me feel so awful that people are not attending really excellent productions.


it has been said that the death of light comedies was greatly aided by TV, although that is grossly overstated. That said, is it possible that the increased TV watching during Covid, coupled with the sheer number of streaming options, coupled with forever rising prices is in the process of altering theatre attendance indefinitely? Are we seeing a fundamental shift: unless you have a big star or can be viewed as event theatre or hit a demographic hard, e.g., Mean Girls, or have run forever (increasing the likelihood that John Q. Public will choose you as a safe bet), is it going to be harder than ever to attract an audience?

BorisTomashevsky said: "chrishuyen said: "Some Like It Hot did some down-low papering leading up to opening. So what we’re seeing here is fewer audience members watching for free compared to the previous week, and a couple more audience members paying for their tickets."

More likely a function of having a full show for opening night the week prior (there were tickets on sale, so it counts) vs. this past week without.

OhHiii said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "chrishuyen said: "Some Like It Hot did some down-low papering leading up to opening. So what we’re seeing here is fewer audience members watching for free compared to the previous week, and a couple more audience members paying for their tickets."

More likely a function of having a full show for opening night the week prior (there were tickets on sale, so it counts) vs. this past week without."

Kimberly Akimbo it might not be making money, but I have to assume it its very much hovering around its weekly operating cost. As such it makes it to January 10th without posting a closure notice, I think its safe to assume that they are going to and have the capital reserved in order to run through awards season. Especially if its only loosing under $50K a week. Mathematically that would be only an additional $800K in capital losses through the Tony Nominations, where I would assume if it does get the most nominations its sales boost could likely cut those losses in half by the ceremony. Then if it sweeps and is the nights big winner as it currently looks like it might, if it plays to only 2 weeks of SRO houses it would completely earn back the losses of keeping it open through the winter. I know that is the ideal scenario, but the way the season is shaping up, it is a hypothetical I could see investors get behind. Some Like It Hot on the other hand is much more expensive to run and seems like it is operating a much more of a loss than Kimberly Akimbo. There is a massive difference between loosing under $50K a week and loosing between $50-$150K a week. I think its fate is very much up to how it sells the next 2 weeks to see if it can indeed attract tourist $.

Thanksgiving to Christmas has historically been slower, certainly for struggling shows. Before the holiday week surge. But the slight bump for Hot is likely due to the infusion of $60 “rush” seats and three houses full of TDF seats (I was in one). The show is shockingly undersold this week - tonight and tomorrow afternoon almost nothing sold upstairs - and almost as bad for the big holiday week when most shows typically pick up full price sales. January looks bleak. By any yardstick.

Updated On: 12/20/22 at 04:42 PM

bdn223 said: "OhHiii said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "chrishuyen said: "Some Like It Hot did some down-low papering leading up to opening. So what we’re seeing here is fewer audience members watching for free compared to the previous week, and a couple more audience members paying for their tickets."

More likely a function of having a full show for opening night the week prior (there were tickets on sale, so it counts) vs. this past week without."

Kimberly Akimboit might not be making money, but I have to assume it its very much hovering around its weekly operating cost. As suchit makes it to January 10th without posting a closure notice, I think its safe to assume that they are going to and have the capital reserved in order to run through awards season. Especially if its only loosing under $50K a week. Mathematically that would be only an additional $800K in capital losses through the Tony Nominations, where I would assume if it does get the most nominations its sales boost could likely cut those losses in half by the ceremony. Then if it sweeps and is the nights big winner as it currently looks like it might, if it plays to only 2 weeks of SRO houses it would completely earn back the losses of keeping it open through the winter.I know that is the ideal scenario, but the way the season is shaping up, it is a hypothetical I could see investors get behind.Some Like It Hot on the other hand is much more expensive to run and seems like it is operating a much more of a loss than Kimberly Akimbo.There is a massive difference between loosing under $50K a week and loosing between $50-$150K a week. I think its fate is very much up to how it sells the next 2 weeks to see if it can indeed attract tourist $."

Don't count on a KA sweep on Tony Night. It may take home a couple of the big awards, but it's not going to win set, costumes, choreo, etc that drive up the total number of trophies for a show. I'd say it's best shot is at 4/5 max (and that's with only the current running shows to compare to). And, the Tony performance is just as important as the wins. Unless they do Better on the telecast, unsure if there's something else that conveys the show's humor so succinctly. And I don't see how they do that on a telecast.

As for SLIH, you're right, the next two weeks will be indicative. Remember, though, the producers are also the landlords, so that's a massive weekly cost that is VERY much lower than it would be otherwise. So their losses may not be as insurmountable as they look without further context.

If we’re talking about the importance of Tony Award performances, I just want to say again how they need to be done in theater and edited beforehand. If these shows could hire someone to essentially make a “trailer” for their musicals using performance clips and scenes I think that would help so many shows.

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "The next few weeks for Kimberly based on seating charts on telecharge are not great but they have FINALLY started releasing a variety of discount codes...but if something else wants the theater this shows days could be numbered"

Ehh, I don't know about that. The Booth is a very desirable theatre for any smaller show, but in today's era, most of those shows don't make any money. I think Akimbo probably makes more than just about any non-star/stunt casted show could right now. I'm not sure I see the Shuberts pushing them out.

RWPrincess said: "I hope that the impending Winter storm this weekend isn't too painful for some of these shows. There are a ton of cities currently listing airline waivers, including NY."

Shows would be covered insurance-wise if performances needed to be canceled due to weather. A state of emergency would probably need to be in place to make a claim for a canceled performance though.

Anybody know the weekly nut for Hadestown?

Does Roundabout care that 1776 is doing so poorly at $200k? Even if they got $0k, would they care since the big-money donors and taxpayer money are funding the show?

Theater3232 said: "Does Roundabout care that 1776 is doing so poorly at $200k? Even if they got $0k, would they care since the big-money donors and taxpayer money are funding the show?"

Do they really expect this show to sell on tour when it could not even get a NYC audience?

There are a couple of things that are stopping many theater fans from taking a train into the city to see a show. One of course is inflation, everything is costing more and some people just can't afford it. The other thing is fear of the crime in NYC. It's pretty scary when you get out of a show and you're walking over to Times Square in a sea of people, then suddenly the crowd is thinning, thinning....gone. You can't find a cab, and you're cutting up a poorly lit side street to get over to Grand Central Station. I used to drive in or take the train down over the decades. There were times when 42nd Street and surrounding streets had adult peep shows, aggressive hookers and shady characters everywhere. Then the city got cleaned up and felt somewhat safer. I never see police patrolling. CBS, NBC and ABC are all out of NYC on my TV, and they always seem to be showing some horrific crime, and God help the people depending on the subway to get around. I think this may be having an impact on the out of towners, especially for evening performances.