In The Week Ending November 16, 2014, Many Shows Saw A Decrease In Sales From The Week Before. Surprisingly, Certain Straight Plays Beat The Odds.


A Low Week In The Broadway Fall Ebb And Flow

In the past few weeks, Broadway seems to be fluctuating between high weeks and low weeks. The week ending November 16, 2014 was one of the low weeks. Of the 35 shows presently running, only 7 of them saw an increase in ticket sales from the week before.

The highest increase was seen by The Elephant Man, only because this was its first full week of eight performances. Of the other six shows that saw an increase, that increase was very slight: always under $100,000.

"Love Letters" And "Side Show" See Increases

Love Letters increased from $393,746 last week to $483,280 this week, which was only an increase of $89,534, and even then the show only brought in 61.89% of its gross capacity.

Other increases were seen by Side Show (an increase of only $35,819, still only at 38.74% gross capacity), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (increased only by $11,242, and was already at over 90% gross potential), as well as On the Town, Once, and Cinderella, each of which only saw an increase of under $10,000. Otherwise, significant decreases were seen by shows including Wicked (decrease of $259,397) and The Lion King (decrease of $209,740).

High Grossing Plays

This fall season is shaping up to have a few solid box office contenders in terms of straight plays. The biggest non-tuner winner appears to be It’s Only a Play, which last week brought in $1,370,168 and has consistently been over the million dollar mark in every full performance week since it began its run.

However, that show is less likely to score big in the Tony Awards, as its box office success is due mostly to the show’s stars including Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, and Rupert Grint. The Elephant Man, starring Bradley Cooper, is shaping up to be another big box office winner, having earned $966,896 last week in its first full performance week.

Audiences Drawn To "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time"

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time continued its winning streak last week with a gross of $907,142, as audiences are drawn to this spectacular drama transferred from London. Finally, Jez Butterworth’s The River is a top earner with its headliner Hugh Jackman, having earned $723,882 this past week, and having earned close to a million dollars last week.

Not only is Jackman generally understood to be box office gold, but Butterworth has quickly guilt a reputation as an unmissable playwright ever since his success with Jerusalem, and this box office success is all the more notable due to the tiny size of the Circle in the Square Theatre.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending November 16, 2014:
Broadway Show Ticket Analysis w/e 11-16-14
Show GrossGross Total Attn %Cap AvgPdAdm
A DELICATE BALANCE $852,393 6,416 100.00% $132.85
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER $788,831 6,885 94.89% $114.57
ALADDIN $1,328,493 13,237 96.03% $100.36
BEAUTIFUL $1,318,454 8,222 100.17% $160.36
CABARET $686,271 6,106 85.47% $112.39
CHICAGO $413,434 5,372 62.18% $76.96
CINDERELLA $631,822 8,518 60.81% $74.17
DISGRACED $471,373 5,569 75.83% $84.64
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH $607,949 6,308 89.49% $96.38
IF/THEN $466,852 6,975 66.50% $66.93
IT’S ONLY A PLAY $1,370,168 8,479 99.15% $161.60
JERSEY BOYS $727,348 6,994 71.19% $104.00
KINKY BOOTS $1,142,851 10,114 88.78% $113.00
LES MISÉRABLES $603,883 7,315 64.90% $82.55
LOVE LETTERS $483,280 5,603 74.95% $86.25
MAMMA MIA! $483,950 6,181 66.26% $78.30
MATILDA $744,214 8,578 74.88% $86.76
MOTOWN THE MUSICAL $997,824 10,157 84.25% $98.24
ON THE TOWN $843,648 10,345 69.00% $81.55
ONCE $462,158 5,652 66.71% $81.77
PIPPIN $397,603 5,210 65.78% $76.32
ROCK OF AGES $323,042 3,718 79.72% $86.89
SIDE SHOW $449,747 8,957 85.93% $50.21
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,594,690 8,751 102.61% $182.23
THE COUNTRY HOUSE $187,209 3,641 70.02% $51.42
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME $907,142 7,988 98.08% $113.56
THE ELEPHANT MAN $966,896 6,278 101.39% $154.01
THE LAST SHIP $536,449 6,648 61.60% $80.69
THE LION KING $1,527,989 13,319 97.93% $114.72
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $715,131 8,450 65.81% $84.63
THE REAL THING $455,145 5,512 93.11% $82.57
THE RIVER $723,882 5,695 102.28% $127.11
THIS IS OUR YOUTH $322,033 4,772 56.22% $67.48
WICKED $1,361,772 12,283 84.87% $110.87
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU $544,105 5,708 66.50% $95.32
Totals: $26,438,028 259,956 80.67% $99.19
Broadway ticket sales raw data are provided courtesy of The Broadway League All other data, text, opinion, charts and commentary are copyright © 2014 nytix.com