Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 4/9/23

[Rob]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 2:03pm

Click below to access all the Broadway grosses from all the shows for the week ending 4/9/2023 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 (% of capacity) was: PETER PAN GOES WRONG (9.5%), HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD (7.6%), NEW YORK, NEW YORK (4.8%), SOME LIKE IT HOT (4.6%), & JULIET (4.5%), FUNNY GIRL (4.4%), BAD CINDERELLA (4.3%), LEOPOLDSTADT (3.7%), BOB FOSSE'S DANCIN' (3.4%), CHICAGO (3.1%), KIMBERLY AKIMBO (2.8%), LIFE OF PI (1.9%), THE BOOK OF MORMON (1.7%), THE LION KING (1%), WICKED (0.4%), ALADDIN (0.4%), HAMILTON (0.3%), PARADE (0.1%), MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL (0.1%), SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (0.1%), MJ THE MUSICAL (0.1%),

Down for the week by attendance (% of capacity) was: PICTURES FROM HOME (-17%), THE THANKSGIVING PLAY (-5.9%), A BEAUTIFUL NOISE, THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL (-4.2%), FAT HAM (-3.4%), SHUCKED (-2.4%), CAMELOT (-1.9%), A DOLL'S HOUSE (-1.1%), HADESTOWN (-0.6%), SIX (-0.1%),

Click Here to Visit the BroadwayWorld Grosses...

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 2:11pm

That's a solid number for SHUCKED in a week that included a comped Opening Night and probably some second-night press.

THANKSGIVING PLAY once again illustrates that 2nd Stage is completely inept when it comes to advertising & selling a Broadway show.

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 2:38pm

Second Stage does really need to get it together in terms of marketing. They could afford to splurge a little on a graphic artist so the productions look a bit more appeal than the SAME FONT FOR EVERY SHOW - especially giving that their marquee has absolutely NO curb appeal.

BAD CINDERELLA remains on the struggle bus. The next two full weeks are on TDF and an average price that hasn’t even neared $100 for a musical that size is not promising at all.

I’m happy to see SHUCKED and DANCIN’ thriving more

[hache2]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 2:39pm

Not as sure about Shucked. Even if the entire opening was comp'd (and some of the second night) their average ticket price would only be in the $70's @ 95% capacity and their advance continues to be bad. Given the amount of advertising and decent reviews I would have expected more improvement.

Updated On: 4/11/23 at 02:39 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 2:48pm

hache2 said: "Not as sure about Shucked. Even if the entire opening was comp'd (and some of the second night) their average ticket price would only be in the $70's @ 95% capacity and their advance continues to be bad. Given the amount of advertising and decent reviews I would have expected more improvement."

By your metric (and I'm not here to check your math), that means the average price is up about $20 from the previous week. Which, paired with a $72,760 increase in grosses across 7 non-opening performances, is a decent jump. The next 4 weeks will be more telling.

[Wick3]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 3:00pm

Given it was Easter week or spring break for many schools it’s great to see the uptick in some shows.

Kudos to Phantom for a gross of $3.6 million! I’m guessing grosses for its final week may be lower due to the April 14th charity performance and the mostly compd final perf on April 16th.

[hache2]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 3:03pm

By your metric (and I'm not here to check your math), that means the average price is up about $20 from the previous week. Which, paired with a$72,760 increase in grosses across 7 non-opening performances, is a decent jump. The next 4 weeks will be more telling."

Agreed. They must be spending a ton on advertising so the next few weeks will be important.

[Fordham2015]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 3:45pm

Oof, Lane's absence really hurt Pictures From Home (which was already struggling)

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 3:46pm

Second Stage truly does have the worst creative on Broadway when it comes to advertising. If you asked an agency to come up with "milquetoast regional subscription house" creative, it would be what 2ST churns out each season. It's beyond stale at this point, and really don't get what their deal is. Uninteresting, bland, and embarrassing. And that's an egregious shame because the theater they produce is routinely fabulous.

At this point, why even cast famous names in your shows? Save money by forgoing stars, because The Thanksgiving Play would be getting these same grosses without names like D'arcy Carden and Chris Sullivan, since their names aren't being taken advantage of to sell the thing. They literally had Chris "Captain America" Evans in a play! But most of the world probably never knew that.

 

In other news, it seems like A Beautiful Noise is starting to bottom out and will hover around the $700K range from now on, maybe with an uptick in the summer? It'll likely have a similar life as other bio-musicals like Cher Show, Summer, etc. On the other hand, & Juliet has really cracked the jukebox musical code. Filled with catchy hits, interesting premise, great ad campaigns that speak to both young people and their parents, a smartly run machine at this point. It's a fun show and I hope it has a good healthy run.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 3:55pm

Yea, the 2nd Stage situation is ridiculous and I'll never shut up about it until it changes because this is just squandered potential. And we cannot put too much blame on the agency: this problem starts at the very tip top of the company.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 4:17pm

The one show I keep gettin amazed is ''A Doll's House'', never would know that Chastain had star power to bring 800k+ for a old show with zero appeal outside her, kudos to this amazing actress!

Also, when first announced, I really expected ''Dancin'' to do way less than they are doing right now, so, great for them?

''A Beautiful Noise'' will the same fate as the other jukebox, as some of us said and others denied.

And there is not doubt that ''& Juliet'' is the hit musical of this season. So sad that back to back the hits were jukebox, even tho they are great jukebox. I'm glad ''Six'' is a hit tho.

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 4:48pm

I think for Chastain, the success also has to do with timing. She is coming fresh off an Oscar win. Plus has the George and Tammy series (for which she will likely secure an Emmy nomination). This gives her a good amount of clout and buzz. This revival opened in a sweet spot after said buzz where she still has that attention on her.  Plus she's not a star that always does theater, so her being on Broadway feels more like an "event" since it isn't common to have her here. 

[DaveyG]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 4:54pm

hache2 said: "Not as sure about Shucked. Even if the entire opening was comp'd (and some of the second night) their average ticket price would only be in the $70's @ 95% capacity and their advance continues to be bad. Given the amount of advertising and decent reviews I would have expected more improvement."

Is it possible that all things Shucked feel positive in our musical theatre fan-bubble of chat boards and theatre-Tok, but to the general public, it isn't really resonating?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 5:20pm

DaveyG said: "Is it possible that all things Shucked feel positive in our musical theatre fan-bubble of chat boards and theatre-Tok, but to the general public, it isn't really resonating?"

Yes, the musical theatre bubble is tiny. And the one review that matters (the NYT) was not positive.

They need to pivot the ad campaign & creative. Focus on the people and score, not the corn. YOU'VE GOT MAIL is not about email, it is about people who happen to use email; SHUCKED is about people whose job is related to corn, but most of the show is not actually about corn.

[BETTY22]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 6:30pm

These Phantom numbers are amazing. Have we ever seen these numbers for a non-star based show? 

You would think Hugh Jackson is playing the Phantom. 

[bear88]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 6:38pm

I think the Shucked marketing folks have tried to shift the focus to cast members and performances. The release of the Alex Newell video, Andrew Durand's performance on the Today Show, et cetera. But they have a tough challenge trying to promote an original musical without any stars. It worked for Six but this show is even more out of the blue. A lot of the people who might be charmed by the show are out-of-town tourists, but they have to know it exists and that they would enjoy it.

Things look pretty grim for the new musicals, with the exception of & Juliet. Its only problem might be the incoming summer musicals, especially Once Upon a One More Time. But people are showing up for the musical and paying good money to see it.

That cannot be said for the others. A Beautiful Noise has OK average ticket prices but can't fill the theater. Most of the others aren't playing to empty houses but the average ticket price is below $100, sometimes well below that. Some of these shows will get boosts from Tony nominations, but part of me wonders how much of an assist that will provide.

Are teenagers and young adults really going to be clamoring to see Kimberly Akimbo? The star is a woman in her 60s playing a dying teenage girl - and not even in the present day. The score works well enough in the context of the show, but that's not a big selling point either. Its likely Best Musical win will help, but I'm not sure it's going to help enough. I can see it getting a box office boost for the summer, then fading in the fall, especially if Victoria Clark leaves.

It's too soon to draw sweeping conclusions about Shucked and New York, New York, but both musicals are tricky to market. The other new shows are unlikely to last beyond the summer unless Andrew Lloyd Webber wants to keep Bad Cinderella open to maintain his streak.

The only new musicals my 20-something daughter - who is planning a trip to New York City in June - knew anything about was Parade and Sweeney Todd, both because of social media, the cast recording in Parade's case, and star power. I had to tell her about the others. 

It seems like tourists this summer will see old favorites, a few of the high-profile revivals, the new shows that are opening in the summer, and newish musicals like MJ (no dropoff without Myles Frost) and Six that they may not have seen in person yet. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 8:36pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Yea, the 2nd Stage situation is ridiculous and I'll never shut up about it until it changes because this is just squandered potential. And we cannot put too much blame on the agency:this problem starts at the very tip top of the company."

I’m very curious that WHITE GIRL IN DANGER seems to have a better ad campaign off Broadway than their Broadway counterpart. Could that be due to the fact that 2ST and Vineyard are coproductions, which means more money in the till for an actual ad campaign?

[Jarethan]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 10:54pm

MayAudraBlessYou2 said: "I think for Chastain, the success also has to do with timing. She is coming fresh off an Oscar win. Plus has the George and Tammy series (for which she will likely secure an Emmy nomination). This gives her a good amount of clout and buzz. This revival opened in a sweet spot after said buzz where she still has that attention on her. Plus she's not a star that always does theater, so her being on Broadway feels more like an "event" since it isn't common to have her here."

I don’t disagree with the logic of ‘what would it do if it didn’t have Chastain’?  I actually am surprised that it is not doing better.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 11:20pm

quizking101 said: "I’m very curious that WHITE GIRL IN DANGER seems to have a better ad campaign off Broadway than their Broadway counterpart. Could that be due to the fact that 2ST and Vineyard are coproductions, which means more money in the till for an actual ad campaign?"

I don't think it has anything to do with money –– the ad creative for 2st is entirely a stylistic choice, not a budgetary one. It's all related to it being a Vineyard co-production.

[Wick3]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 11:23pm

BETTY22 said: "These Phantom numbers are amazing. Have we ever seen these numbers for a non-star based show?

You would think Hugh Jackson is playing the Phantom."

For week of New Years 2023 a few months ago, Lion King had a gross of $4.3 million over 9 performances. Some folks in the boards, including myself, questioned it though since some things didn't add up but that's what the broadway league published.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 11:31pm

bear88 said: "Are teenagers and young adults really going to be clamoring to seeKimberly Akimbo? The star is a woman in her 60s playing a dying teenage girl - and not even in the present day. The score works well enough in the context of the show, but that's not a big selling point either. Its likely Best Musical win will help, but I'm not sure it's going to help enough. I can see it getting a box office boost for the summer, then fading in the fall, especially if Victoria Clark leaves."

The reality is nobody is clamoring to see KIMBERLY AKIMBO. The numbers tell us that. These are close to GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE-level bad, and there is a distinct possibility that it wins Best Musical and does not get the major bump that it wants and closes at the end of summer. David Stone is among the best in the biz, but I just don't think this musical is resonating with the general public. The ad campaign also isn't working, and WOM is tricky on a show like this.

[pethian]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 11:40pm

Given that this past week included the first two nights of Passover, Good Friday and Easter, shouldn't we be cautious about too much interpretation of these numbers?

[HogansHero]

Posted: 4/11/23 at 11:59pm

pethian said: "Given that this past week included the first two nights of Passover, Good Friday and Easter, shouldn't we be cautious about too much interpretation of these numbers?"

This triggers another point for me. 

The Easter weekend saw the city filled to the brim with tourists but the percentage of them who were foreign is astonishingly high. (This is not really a surprise; except for NYC, a lot of schools do not have Spring break for Easter/Passover. And foreign tourists are not targeted by most of the shows we are talking about. Which ones are? The answer to that is staring you in the face.) We talk about this a lot but don't do anything about it.

[inception]

Posted: 4/12/23 at 1:28am

It seems like most places had Spring Break in March.  I saw a lot of young people out & about when I was in the city last month.

While Easter is a 4 day weekend for many here, it is also a holiday that comes with family obligations for many, so leisure travel may not be taking place.  Definitely the May long weekend is when more people plan trips.

When I was in the city last July, I was also struck by how many of the other tourists did not have English as a first language. I went to a Monday night performance of Phantom that week, & it was a full house of what seemed like mostly tourists - & probably the best behaved audience I was in all that week, vs all the screeching & screaming at the two performances of Into the Woods I also went to that same week.

Are Parade's numbers good?  I had very negative thoughts about that show until I saw it, and then it turned out to be one of the best shows of my trip. 

Growing my sisters were best friends with a neighbor family who had a daughter's their same age.  The father of that family would go on fishing trips, & while he was gone they would have week long slumber parties over there.  The highlight of those for them all were marathons of sad movies like Steel Magnolias, Beaches etc -anything where SPOILERS someone dies tragically at the end.  I only made the mistake of going over once.  The whole rec room was girls crying uncontrollably. I think SPOILERS Beth had just died in Little Women.  And then all they wanted was something even sadder next.  I don't know if they even bothered with the rest of that movie.  Who gives a fig whether Jo gets married or not?

Point of that story: there are plenty of people who do find great entertainment value in tragic stories. Parade is an excellent tragic story told well, & I hope it continues to find an audience. 

 

Updated On: 4/12/23 at 01:28 AM

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 4/12/23 at 1:42am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "bear88 said: "Are teenagers and young adults really going to be clamoring to seeKimberly Akimbo? The star is a woman in her 60s playing a dying teenage girl - and not even in the present day. The score works well enough in the context of the show, but that's not a big selling point either. Its likely Best Musical win will help, but I'm not sure it's going to help enough. I can see it getting a box office boost for the summer, then fading in the fall, especially if Victoria Clark leaves."

The reality is nobody is clamoring to see KIMBERLY AKIMBO. The numbers tell us that. These are close to GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE-level bad, and there is a distinct possibility that it wins Best Musical and does not get the major bump that it wants and closes at the end of summer. David Stone is among the best in the biz, but I just don't think this musical is resonating with the general public. The ad campaign also isn't working, and WOM is tricky on a show like this."

I have a really hard time believing that Kimberly Akimbo would close at the end of the summer if it wins Best Musical. Even the worst performing shows after that win (A Strange Loop, Passion) made it to January.