Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 9/11/2005- Page 2

[Dre2387]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:12pm

but can you see where I'm coming from though? i understand the whole buying tickets in advance, but don't forget, they bought tickets in advance, knowing what day they would be seeing them.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:15pm

::waits for the impending closing notices::

[LouW95]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:25pm

Bway needs more vehicles to promote itself. When we lost Rosie's TV show, we suffered a serious loss of national publicity. Leno and Letterman do almost nothing to showcase shows, even those on national tours. The Tony Award telecasts seem to get dismal ratings and they usually showcase musical numbers which do little or nothing to sell tickets. Bway needs to get the word out to the rest of the country especially the millions of people outside of Manhattan in the other 4 boroughs of NYC.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:28pm

9/11 had nothing to do with anything. These shows have done 101% business every week for months and will continue to do 101% business every week for the foreseeable future. Your argument might make sense if there was even the slightest discernable change in the box office take in either show last week compared to previous weeks, but the fact is they're completely soldout so there is no change. These have been the hottest tickets on Broadway in the last year and people snatched up every single available ticket for whenever tickets were available, regardless of 9/11, 4th of July, Yom Kipper, Rosh Hashanah -- they could care less about the date -- they just wanted tickets and probably didn't even give the 9/11 anniversary a second thought.

It has nothing to do with people choosing those two because they're "silly entertainment" -- so are 80% of the other shows on Broadway and most of them tanked last week. In fact, if that was the criteria, there are several shows I'd call much sillier than Wicked. Mamma Mia, Hairspray, All Shook Up, Avenue Q, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Producers are all far sillier than Wicked, yet they all did terrible business last week.

Again, Wicked and Spamalot soldout last week because they are the hottest megahits with the biggest advances ($20+ million each) on Broadway. The tickets were bought many months ago without giving a thought to any anniversaries of anything -- tickets were/are scarce and people grabbed whatever dates that were availble. That's why they were sold out -- no other reason.

Updated On: 9/13/05 at 02:28 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:44pm

I don't think 9/11 affects BWW any more...maybe those who are mourning, but overall, it's another day now.

People don't say, "well, it's 9/11, let's see something where we don't have to think."

[JRTO]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:52pm

I'd be suprised if Hairspray made its nut this week- as you can tell, I'm shocked! I don't know the exact number, but it must be around $350,000

Margo is absolutly right- nothing to do with 9/11, all to do with no tourists and small advances for the shows that dropped so much.

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:18pm

Holy crap.

I hope Brooke can help Chicago!!

Honestly, Lennon and ASU have NO chance.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:22pm

This proves Christina isn't the big time star we thought she was...or some of you thought she was.

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:25pm

Yeah, but it's not Christina's fault. She never kept the grosses amazing. People most likely got turned off from all the out of town drama. Do you know what the grosses would've looked like with d'Amboise or other Broadway known names in the role? It wouldn't have lasted a month.

Anyway. I wonder if Piazza producers are kicking themselves for renewing again.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:39pm

please tell me these numbers will come back up a little....Lion King being in the 80s makes me want to cry a little bit
(and all the other drops too)

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:42pm

Christina was obviously chosen for her star power...

Hugh Jakcman kept BFO sold out despite the reviews, which were worse than the reviews for Sweet Charity, I think (??).

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:46pm

Yeah, but there were a few "names" before Christina, and Weisslers felt they weren't right for the role. They could've easily went with another name.

Christina went through intense auditions for the role. The main auditon with singing acting and dancing (where Cilento said she danced better than any other star that auditioned) and a 3 hour PRIVATE singing audition with Mr Cy Coleman himself. And after that, Coleman gave them the okay, and thought she was great for the role.

So, it wasn't like the Fran & Barry picked her name out of a hat. She was chosen for her star quality, talent, and name.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 4:08pm

There's always a bit of a slump after Labor Day and double digit drops are typical (it was actually worse two years ago when 5 shows dropped 20+% and two dropped 30+%). You'll see the numbers improve slightly next week (they couldn't be worse, really) and gradually over the next month or two (for the shows that survive), the grosses should get back to approx. where they were a month or two ago. You won't see a lot of sellouts, though until the tourists come back Thanksgiving through New Years.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 5:05pm

I'm so shocked about ASU. It seems like it was going strong and then slowly started to decline, and then more and more, until BAM - 30%. That's like Little Women numbers. I think it will be closing shortly. It seems odd to me that ASU suddenly started doing terrible busy around the time that Lestat wanted the Palace Theater. Anyways, I hope they still release the Lennon cast album.

[One Song Glory]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 5:41pm

Terrible week for Broadway. Hope it clears up.

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 6:43pm

Wow. This is the most horrible week. I really hope ASU (and Lennon) can pull through.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 6:46pm

OH MY GOD! Hairspray was in the 60's% and Producers did really bad too, Chicago was horrible. Did you guys look at Rent?!!!! I'm soo freaked out right now, I had never seen so many shows do that bad the same week.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 11:30pm

This is the first time I can remember the botom five grossing and attended shows were all musicals.