Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 8/10/2014

"Rock Of Ages" Not Seeing A Boost From Constantine Maroulis

The 80s rock jukebox musical Rock of Ages was at the bottom of the box office pack this past week, with a weekly gross of only $350,119. That was a decrease of $28,267 from the week before, and was equivalent to only 65.32% of the show’s gross potential.

Performing even lower than musicals that have already announced closing such as Violet and Bullets over Broadway, Rock of Ages was aware that it needed a box office boost.

Summer Tourist Crowd Not Aware Of Recent Cast Changes

That is why the producers decided to invite back Constantine Maroulis who originated the Broadway lead role in 2009, and then continued with the show through its national tour. Maroulis, who first came to fame in the fourth season of American Idol, and who then solidified his Broadway renown in the title role of Jekyll and Hyde, was thought to be an attractive box office name for this struggling show.

However, in his first week of performances, the box office does not seem to have budged; in fact it saw a decrease. This is likely because the summer tourist crowd is not particularly aware of recent news of cast changes, and instead purchases based on familiarity with a show’s title alone.

Summer Musicals Performing Excellently As Predicted

In the week ending August 10, 2014, the top two grossing shows were, as expected, The Lion King and Wicked. The Lion King brought in an impressive $2,295,313, which was 100.08% of its gross potential, and Wicked reaped in $2,059,477, which was a whomping 122.51% of its gross potential.

Though Wicked plays in a bigger theatre than The Lion King (the Gershwin has 15,424 seats to fill in an eight performance week, whereas the Minskoff has just 13,600 in the same eight performances), the difference in gross potential derives from the higher ticket pricing for Wicked.

Big Hits On Broadway

Whereas the top ticket for Wicked $300.00, the top ticket for The Lion King is a more affordable $197.50. Nonetheless, the average paid ticket for The Lion King this past week was $168.76, whereas the average paid ticket for Wicked was $133.73. With more seats to fill, they must be able to discount more heavily.

Following these two top grossing shows, the top grossing shows in order were The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Beautiful, Kinky Boots, Matilda, The Phantom of the Opera, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, all musicals that broke the million dollar mark.