In The Week Ending April 12, 2015, The Audience And Fish In The Dark Performed Well. While Airline Highway, Living On Love, And The Visit Performed Poorly.


Two Plays Still Going Strong: “The Audience” And “Fish In The Dark”

In the week ending April 12, 2015, two straight plays are still playing in the big leagues. With weekly grosses beat out only by the top five high grossing musicals, these two plays are beating all odds against straight plays and performing very well financially many weeks into their runs.

The Audience starring Helen Mirren in the role of Queen Elizabeth II brought in $1,143,548 this past week, which represents 108.18% of its gross potential. With the exception of only one week, The Audience has been in the millionaire’s club every full performance week since it began previews on February 14, 2015.

Helen Mirren Stars In "The Queen"

This past week, with a top ticket price of $323.00, the average paid admission was $151.56, showing that fans of the film The Queen, as well as history buffs and those who love Helen Mirren, are paying more than full price to see this play. Furthermore, Larry David’s Fish in the Dark brought in $1,169,986 in the week ending April 12, 2015.

That represents a remarkable 112.41% of the show’s gross potential. With a top ticket price of $497.00, the average paid admission was $134.17, and the average audience capacity was at 101.6%. This play wins out because of the event nature of the show, as Larry David is not a usual face on Broadway, but he certainly has national acclaim.

Three Plays Struggling: “Airline Highway,” “Living On Love,” And “The Visit”

This past week, three shows that played full performance weeks of eight shows brought in barely enough to stay afloat. First of all, Airline Highway, a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, brought in only $143,150, which represents 24.29% of its gross potential. The average paid admission was only $37.42, and the audience was filled up to an average of 76.3%.

As the next lowest performing show this past week, Living on Love brought in $198,392. This play stars opera singer Renee Fleming in a play based off of Peccadillo by Garson Kanin. With an average paid admission of $34.18, the show reached 20.73% of its gross potential, and had an average audience capacity of 67.6%.

Cutthroat Broadway Season

In addition, The Visit starring Chita Rivera brought in only $224,289, which represents 29.41% of the show’s gross potential. With an average audience capacity of 71.5%, the average paid admission was $43.19, despite a top ticket price of $225.00.

These three shows will need to up their numbers if they are to compete in this cutthroat Broadway season, and so far it is not looking good. Fortunately for at least Airline Highway, that is produced by a not-for-profit institution that can afford to take in low numbers due to the endowment subsiding the production.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending April 12, 2015:

Broadway-Show-Ticket-Analysis-4-12-15
Show Name GrossGross TotalAttn %Capacity AvgPdAdm
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER $712,576 7,149 98.53% $99.67
AIRLINE HIGHWAY $143,150 3,825 76.26% $37.42
ALADDIN $1,768,354 13,786 100.01% $128.27
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $826,417 11,559 98.35% $71.50
BEAUTIFUL $1,057,902 7,890 96.13% $134.08
CHICAGO $612,057 7,128 82.50% $85.87
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO $535,584 8,920 75.44% $60.04
FINDING NEVERLAND $1,129,481 12,040 102.31% $93.81
FISH IN THE DARK $1,169,986 8,720 101.58% $134.17
FUN HOME $401,034 5,239 98.33% $76.55
GIGI $635,256 8,637 77.67% $73.55
HAND TO GOD $282,901 5,431 86.81% $52.09
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH $437,941 4,711 66.83% $92.96
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU $402,840 7,683 95.65% $52.43
IT’S ONLY A PLAY $694,877 7,430 86.23% $93.52
JERSEY BOYS $808,116 8,231 83.78% $98.18
KINKY BOOTS $1,082,034 10,614 93.17% $101.94
LES MISÉRABLES $919,372 10,373 92.02% $88.63
LIVING ON LOVE $198,392 5,804 67.61% $34.18
MAMMA MIA! $766,214 8,438 90.46% $90.81
MATILDA $1,248,351 11,429 99.76% $109.23
ON THE TOWN $752,482 10,755 71.74% $69.97
ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY $517,707 5,667 98.11% $91.35
SKYLIGHT $749,843 6,403 99.80% $117.11
SOMETHING ROTTEN! $619,159 9,310 99.03% $66.50
THE AUDIENCE $1,143,548 7,545 100.83% $151.56
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,517,969 8,746 102.56% $173.56
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME $811,321 7,912 97.15% $102.54
THE HEIDI CHRONICLES $368,596 4,934 61.61% $74.71
THE KING AND I $761,311 8,376 100.00% $90.89
THE LION KING $2,293,061 13,436 98.79% $170.67
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $1,097,215 10,482 81.64% $104.68
THE VISIT $224,289 5,193 72.04% $43.19
WICKED $2,181,861 14,678 96.01% $148.65
WOLF HALL PARTS ONE & TWO $594,758 8,525 77.05% $69.77
Totals $29,465,955 296,999 89.31% $93.83

Broadway ticket sales raw data are provided courtesy of The Broadway League All other data, text, opinion, charts and commentary are copyright © 2015 nytix.com