In the week ending July 5, 2015, the Independence Day holiday weekend made ticket sales very low for Broadway, where almost every show brought in less money than the week before. Amazing Grace is in particularly dangerous territory with its low grosses.

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

An Overall Slow Week on Broadway

In the week ending July 5, 2015, the entire Broadway industry saw a decrease in ticket sales of $2,288,441 across the 27 shows running. Of these 27 shows, only four saw an increase in ticket sales, and the remaining 23 brought in less money at the box office than they had the week before. The biggest decrease was seen by Beautiful, which brought in $860,890, a decrease of $193,146 from the week before. Even Wicked, which still brought in 104.74% of its gross potential with a weekly gross of $1,864,235 saw a decrease of $182,908 from the week before. Something Rotten! brought in $1,053,848, a decrease of $176,771 from the week before. Wolf Hall Parts One and Two, which played its final performances on Sunday July 5, 2015 saw a decrease of $169,013 from the week before. This is particularly surprising, because even shows that are not doing well at the box office tend to see an upsurge, even if slight, in their final week of performances. In this case, Wolf Hall Parts One and Two brought in only $346,459, which represents a dismal 31.08% of its gross potential – by far the lowest percentage reached of gross potential throughout its run. In this case, the Independence Day holiday weekend was pretty much the opposite sentiment to the stark and serious beauty of the English double bill. Wolf Hall even resorted to papering (giving away free tickets) in their final week. The only four shows to show an increase did so very slightly. The King and I saw an increase of $66,981 from the week before, the highest increase of any show.

“Amazing Grace” Looking Dire at the Box Office

In this overall difficult week on Broadway, the show that may have suffered the most is Amazing Grace, which only began previews on June 25, 2015. In these preview weeks prior to its opening night date of July 16, 2015, at which time reviews will be published to spread awareness of the new musical, the show is fine-tuning its production but suffering from a lack of interest. In the week ending July 5, 2015, Amazing Grace brought in $201,081, which is an increase of $689 from the week before. However, this negligible increase coincided with an addition of two performances from the previous partial week of 5 performances. So, on average the show brought in less money per performance. This past week, its weekly gross amounted to a threateningly low percentage reached of gross potential of 18.32%. This is a decrease from 29.21% the week before. With a top ticket price of $197.00, the average paid admission this past week was only $38.92, cheaper than most Off-Broadway fare. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Amazing Grace will even make it to opening night without shuttering, but chances are that unless the reviews are stupendous, it won’t make it much further than that. The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending July 5, 2015:Broadway-Show-Ticket-Analysis-7-05-15
Show Name GrossGross TotalAttn %Capacity AvgPdAdm
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER $483,592 6,105 84.14% $79.21
ALADDIN $1,598,424 13,786 100.01% $115.95
AMAZING GRACE $201,081 5,166 63.51% $38.92
AN ACT OF GOD $903,661 7,612 94.58% $118.72
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $1,348,052 12,530 93.28% $107.59
BEAUTIFUL $860,890 7,378 89.89% $116.68
CHICAGO $571,954 7,329 84.83% $78.04
FINDING NEVERLAND $1,087,396 11,494 95.53% $94.61
FISH IN THE DARK $854,571 8,128 94.69% $105.14
FUN HOME $744,230 6,125 103.46% $121.51
HAND TO GOD $317,404 4,357 70.55% $72.85
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH $475,996 5,763 81.76% $82.60
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU $344,925 5,577 68.89% $61.85
JERSEY BOYS $644,185 7,319 74.50% $88.02
KINKY BOOTS $823,566 9,175 80.54% $89.76
LES MISÉRABLES $689,495 8,916 79.10% $77.33
MAMMA MIA! $805,674 8,928 95.71% $90.24
MATILDA $1,039,197 11,456 100.00% $90.71
ON THE TOWN $473,731 8,920 59.50% $53.11
ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY $487,786 5,485 94.96% $88.93
SOMETHING ROTTEN! $1,053,848 11,978 89.82% $87.98
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,382,123 8,751 102.61% $157.94
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME $861,351 7,552 92.73% $114.06
THE KING AND I $1,241,086 8,376 100.00% $148.17
THE LION KING $2,143,344 13,603 100.02% $157.56
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $971,851 11,125 86.64% $87.36
WICKED $1,864,235 14,732 96.36% $126.54
WOLF HALL PARTS ONE & TWO $346,459 6,559 59.28% $52.82
Total $24,620,107 244,225 87.03% $96.58
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