In The Week Ending August 16, 2015, Broadway Saw An Overall Decrease In Ticket Sales Of 5.36% From The Week Before.


“Hamilton” Continues To Reap It In

In the week ending August 16, 2015, Hamilton was the fourth highest-grossing show on Broadway, only coming in behind The Lion King, Wicked, and Aladdin. This week, it brought in nearly its highest gross yet at $1,459,314, which represents 109.32% of its gross potential. This was the fifth full week of performances.

The record for their weekly gross so far took place two weeks prior, the week ending August 2, 2015, when it brought in $1,490,816. That represented 111.67% of the show’s gross potential. In addition, for the first two weeks of only seven performances as opposed to the usual eight, the show brought in a lower overall gross but a higher percentage of gross potential, at 110.30% and 111.51% of the show’s gross potential for the first two weeks of the run, respectively.

Rave Reviews Pour In For "Hamilton"

Still, this past week demonstrated that Hamilton is a bona fide hit, as sales continue to be strong after the show’s opening night when it received a round of rave reviews from critics far and wide. This past week, the top ticket price was $275.00, and the average paid admission was $136.31, which is a big jump from last week’s average ticket price of $117.99. It continues to be very tough to score a ticket to this hot show, and the box office figures are demonstrating this fact.

Otherwise A Slower Week On Broadway

Other than Hamilton’s continued financial success, this past week demonstrated a decrease in overall ticket sales for the 25 shows that were running. Of these 25 shows, only four demonstrated an increase in ticket sales from the week before: Hamilton went up by $204,151, Amazing Grace went up by $26,511, Mamma Mia! went up by $15,995, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch went up by $3,687. Other than Hamilton, all of these increases are fairly negligible.

Overall, the entire industry saw a decrease in ticket sales of $1,317,989, which is a decrease of 5.36% from the week before. The biggest decreases were seen by Aladdin which went down by $299,545 but still grossed the impressive figure of $1,778,618, Penn & Teller on Broadway which went down by $268,702 in its final week of performances, and The Lion King which went down by $168,470 but still brought in the highest weekly gross of any show of $2,165,067.

Big Decreases For "The Book Of Mormon" And "Matilda"

Furthermore, six-figure decreases were seen by The Book of Mormon and Matilda. Therefore, though the overall industry saw a relative downturn, it is mainly the high-grossing shows that went down in ticket sales, rather than the low-grossing shows reaching a point of desperation.

As the summer is coming to a close, the high tourist season will also be wrapping up in the next few weeks. As the fall shows begin to open, we will see a switch towards more New Yorkers attending the theatre, and an increased interest in straight plays rather than just the high-grossing musicals.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending August 16, 2015:
Broadway show ticket analysis 8-16-15
Show Name GrossGross TotalAttn %Capacity AvgPdAdm
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER $517,799 6,390 88.07% $81.03
ALADDIN $1,778,618 13,822 100.04% $128.68
AMAZING GRACE $298,798 5,218 56.13% $57.26
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $1,286,907 11,856 88.27% $108.54
BEAUTIFUL $945,696 7,764 94.59% $121.81
CHICAGO $570,965 7,317 84.69% $78.03
FINDING NEVERLAND $987,966 10,557 87.74% $93.58
FUN HOME $761,867 5,994 101.25% $127.10
HAMILTON $1,459,314 10,706 101.31% $136.31
HAND TO GOD $273,184 3,921 63.49% $69.67
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH $400,061 5,303 75.23% $75.44
JERSEY BOYS $599,028 6,524 66.41% $91.82
KINKY BOOTS $882,154 9,103 79.91% $96.91
LES MISÉRABLES $787,374 9,631 85.44% $81.75
MAMMA MIA! $983,331 9,400 100.43% $104.61
MATILDA $1,002,243 11,077 96.69% $90.48
ON THE TOWN $435,180 8,127 54.21% $53.55
PENN & TELLER ON BROADWAY $1,555,706 9,399 71.90% $122.71
SOMETHING ROTTEN! $1,005,030 10,995 82.45% $91.41
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,448,473 8,689 101.89% $166.70
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME $859,261 7,592 93.22% $113.18
THE KING AND I $1,074,119 7,904 94.36% $135.90
THE LION KING $2,165,067 13,128 96.76% $164.92
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $1,015,752 11,191 87.16% $90.77
WICKED $1,913,037 14,845 97.10% $128.87
Totals $25,006,928 226,453 85.95% $104.44
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