Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 5/24/26

Late report for what was a plentiful Memorial Day weekend.

Happy trails to BEACHES and Daniel Radcliffe, whose show set a new house record for a play last week. Well done.

HAPPY ENDING tumbles as Darren Criss has left the Helperbot Yards. Can’t imagine it lasts a lot longer… but who knows.

2025-26 fiscal year in the books: total of $1,910,903,835 made on Broadway. Another new record to tout at the Tonys despite the numbers consistently slowing down in recent months. 

 

111K is nothing  celebrate, lowest grossing show - isn't it?

Updated On: 5/27/26 at 04:07 PM

Looks like DBH def got a bump from the closing notice. 

THE FEAR OF 13 is turning into such an interesting study in star casting and producing. It doesn't seem to be grabbing on. I suppose it's not about just casting a star, but the right star(s).

Conversely, very interesting to see POTTER back over $1.1mil without Felton.

Updated On: 5/27/26 at 04:23 PM

Ensemble1665759202 said: "MemorableUserName said: "Highest grossing week yet for Two Strangers. Love to see it."

this isn’t even remotely true"

My bad. I checked the link in the first post in the page but failed to notice the default on the chart is to show the past 12 weeks and not the full run. 

It's nice to see all four Best Musical nominees up this week.

I realize it was a holiday weekend, but it’s still nice to see positive numbers for almost everything - and the exceptions either feel irrelevant (Death of a Salesman’s grosses dropped a bit but are still excellent at a sold out Winter Garden) or expected (Maybe Happy Ending’s decline was predictable in the week after Darren Criss’ second exit from the show).

Maybe Happy Ending will probably have to endure a slow period as attention turns even more to the Tony-nominated shows for a while. But the question, more than before, is whether the musical can survive on its own. I think it’s an excellent, emotionally resonant show that is more likely to appeal to the masses than many musicals, but I could be wrong.

My optimistic comp for it is Hadestown, a show that survived the loss of its original cast and has plugged away for years despite gloomy predictions. Even if box office receipts decline, wouldn’t running costs drop too with Criss gone? But this is where the absence of tourists might hurt. And like most newer musicals, it will have to make money for a while to break even.

Ptero2 said: "MHE will struggle to have the same kind of casting success as Hadestown has had to keep it fresh. They have found themselves in a position where they have a very limited pool of actors to pull from in terms of name recognition without getting raked over the coals on social media. I do not envy their position..."

I am honestly surprised that the social media police haven’t said anything about the new Claire standby being an African-American woman. They seemed hellbent on decimating ABF for being a non-Asian in the role. Could it be that maybe those loud voices called it a day after Michael Arden doubled down on the assertion that they are robots that could be of any background?

inlovewithjerryherman said: "THE FEAR OF 13 is turning into such an interesting study in star casting and producing. It doesn't seem to be grabbing on. I suppose it's not about just casting a star, but the right star(s).

Conversely, very interesting to see POTTER back over $1.2mil without Felton."

I think that Adrien Brody is an excellent actor who deserved both of his Oscars.  That said, he was never really a star.  Other than the two biggies, it seems to me that he was rarely in leading roles...generally relegated to ensemble casts or movies with limited potential.  When this was announced, I wondered whether he would really sell tickets.  Given the subject matter, he clearly sold tickets, just not a lot compared to the other bigger names that have appeared in recent seasons.  

quizking101 said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "2025-26 fiscal year in the books: total of$1,910,903,835made on Broadway. Another new record to tout at the Tonys despite the numbers consistently slowing down in recent months.

"

Ah yes - another record breaking year which will also be used to continue justifying pricing out your average audience members.

These numbers are certainly something to look at. I really have no idea how & JULIET is still hanging on at those rates. MHE naturally took a tumble, but really the next few weeks are going to be the indicator of future success. Remember that the show did well for 9 weeks without Criss and amidst racially charged controversy, so I’m not too pressed yet. STRANGER THINGS is also past their sell-by date, but as has been established for months, Netflix has deep pockets and nobody is exactly craving to use the Marquis.

My biggest question mark is TITANIQUE. The fact that the breakeven is a staggering $1M/week and the fact it hasn’t pulled that level with any degree of frequency is making me think announcing the extension was a mistake. Are they really expecting to pick up any Tony Awards? Their best odds are probably in Book of a Musical (as a way to honor Marla, Connie, and Tye in one), and that doesn’t usually boost anyone.

Shoutout to OPERATION MINCEMEAT for not only continuing to hold the line, but staying consistently above the grosses of the original cast by roughly $100K on a weekly basis. I’m not sure what their path to recoupment looks like, but there is definitely some hope here as they’ve since extended through their second anniversary in February 2027

Maybe they are hoping that the number they perform will get people interested in buying tickets.  Decades ago, Smokey Joe's Cafe saw business explode after the Tony Awards, because people loved the number they chose to perform.  I have to admit that I never liked the show; I saw it a second time and thought it was torture.  But it ran for 5 or so years, and has been a huge touring and regional hit, so I am clearly in the minority.  I really do believe that all of that is due to their Tony selection.

What I find amazing is that in the past two weeks, it has grossed about the same as Schmiggadoon, which really does not speak well for Schmigdoon, a new musical vs.a revival of an off-Broadway show that closed several years ago, having run out of steam.  Titanique is in a larger theatre and their average ticket price was lower, but almost 3,000 more people saw Titanique.

I am thinking that Just in Time is going to do just fine.  They may not see the stratospheric Groff grosses, but selling out with an ATP of $150 is pretty impressive.  Good for them.

 

Good grief, what kind of money laundering scheme is going down at the Shubert?

bear882 said: "I realize it was a holiday weekend, but it’s still nice to see positive numbers for almost everything - and the exceptions either feel irrelevant (Death of a Salesman’s grosses dropped a bit but are still excellent at a sold out Winter Garden) or expected(Maybe Happy Ending’s decline was predictable in the week after Darren Criss’ second exit from the show)."

 

Salesman's numbers are even more irrelevant considering that according to the charts, they did 8 shows last week and 7 this week and only dropped $75K.