This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

Ticket Sales Have Risen Along With The Temperature

As we are officially in the summer season, and the weather is consistently lovely, the Broadway industry is seeing a healthy season of sales.  In the week ending June 22, 2014, the collective total of Broadway shows saw an increase of $1,513,333 from the week before.  Of the 34 shows presently running, only seven earned less money this week than the week prior, with the rest seeing an increase in ticket sales.  The biggest increase was seen by All the Way, which won the Tony Award for Best Play (along with a slew of other honors this season), and which is playing a strictly limited engagement; it will be forced to close in August due to the schedule of its cast.  It earned $195,542 more this week from the previous week, when it had already seen a healthy increase.  The biggest loser this week is Casa Valentina, which earned $73,413 less than the previous week, only bringing in a total weekly gross of $182,859.  That play will also be closing this summer, but it has done much less well in terms of both box office and awards this season.

Summer Blockbuster Musicals

Also with the summer season officially underway, it is becoming clear which shows will be the big summer blockbusters.  Unsurprisingly, the biggest earners this week were the megahit musicals The Lion King and Wicked, which brought in $2,098,868 and $2,027,347 respectively.  Playing in a much smaller theatre, but performing equally well in terms of gross potential, was The Book of Mormon, which brought in $1,641,677 this past week.  Not far behind is All the Way with $1,425,001, which is an immense accomplishment to be the fourth highest earner as a straight play, when musicals have a greater earning potential as well as a bigger precedent for attracting the big bucks at the box office.  In order, the next biggest grosses were achieved by Kinky Boots, Aladdin, Beautiful, Matilda, Les Misérables, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Motown the Musical, and The Phantom of the Opera.  All of those titles were in the million dollar club this past week.  Trailing not too far behind were A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as Jersey Boys, a long-running hit whose movie adaptation is just hitting the theaters.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending June 22, 2014:

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

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 6/15/2014

“All The Way” Gaining Momentum

All the Way is the Tony Award winning Best Play of 2014, and that success is showing at the box office.  It helps that the star of the show is Bryan Cranston, one of America’s most celebrated actors for such performances as his leading role as Walter White on the television show Breaking Bad.  Written by Robert Schenkkan and directed by Bill Rauch, this play has been doing excellently at the box office since it began performances on February 10, 2014.  It has been hovering over the $1 million mark, with a steady increase since the awards season has begun.  But after this play has shown well above others in several awards ceremonies, national word has spread.  In the week ending June 15, 2014, the show grossed $1,229,459, which was an increase of $288,909, the highest increase of any show this week.  With an average paid ticket of $128.90, the show reached 89.86% of its gross potential.  This is a very high number specifically for a play, putting it in competition against some of the top earning musicals.

“Holler if Ya Hear Me” Still Struggling

This Tupac Shakur inspired musical opened at an unusual time, too late for Tony Award consideration and when the summer season is beginning, when many tourists go for lighter musical fare.  Though a musical, this show deals with themes that may be traditionally less desirable in the warmer season.  Though the show will open later this week and is still in previews, it is still abnormally low that it only grossed $163,586 in a week of eight performances.  With an average paid admission of $24.35, the show only made 18.32% of its gross potential, by far the lowest of any show this past week.  The second lowest show in terms of reaching its gross potential, Mothers and Sons, just announced that it will be closing at the end of next week.  With a weekly gross of $156,116, it only grossed 20.34% of its gross potential.

Other Shows Having Difficulties

There are other shows that are earned less than half of their gross potential, many of which are produced by not for profit theatre institutions.  Casa Valentina, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, only earned 43.73% of its gross potential, though it was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, which it did not win.  Furthermore, Violet, a musical produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, only grossed 44.42% of its potential.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending June 16, 2014:

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

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

In Anticipation of the Tony Awards, Nominated Shows See Boost

The week ending June 8, 2014 culminated in the 68^th Annual Tony Awards, held at Radio City Music Hall.  Almost every single nominated show saw an increase in ticket sales this week form the week prior.  The winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, earned a weekly gross of $733,879, which was an increase of $32,900 from the week before.  It will be interesting to watch how much this gross increases now that the award has been taken home.  Furthermore, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which also received a slew of nominations and won four awards, grossed $1,021,708 this past week, which was an increase of $42,465 from the week prior.  This is an extremely hot ticket, which is a major achievement with its countercultural themes.  The winner of Best Play, All the Way, earned $940,550 in the week approaching the Tony Awards, which was an increase of $27,635 from the week before.  Finally, the winner of Best Play Revival was A Raisin in the Sun, which earned a whomping $1,226,464, up $40,888 from the week before.

Long-Running Shows Slow Down

In contrast, many long-running shows saw a decrease in sales this week.  Mamma Mia! earned $89,116 than it did the week before, Motown the Musical went down by $21,038, the 2012 Best Musical winner Once decreased by $24,401 this week, Rock of Ages went down by $12,187, The Lion King saw a decrease of $9,801, The Phantom of the Opera went down by $95,397, and even the megahit The Book of Mormon saw a decrease in weekly grosses this week of $36,161.  This goes to show that theatregoers are indeed paying attention to awards news, and they are flocking to see the shows that were in contention for awards this past Sunday evening.

Holler if Ya Hear Me is Not Being Heard

This week saw the beginning of previews for a new musical based on the music and life of Tupac Shakur: Holler if Ya Hear Me.  With an almost full week of seven performances, this musical only grossed $148,964, which is only 19% of the show’s gross potential.  The average ticket price was only $24.10, as the production must have been heavily discounting and also offering many complimentary seats, still managing to fill 81.2% of its audience capacity.  In a noisy climate with much awards excitement, it makes sense that this unusually themed musical would get lost in the undertow.  However, once reviews come out after its opening on June 19, 2014, the show will have more of a chance of catching wind.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending June 8, 2014:

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

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

An unequivocal loss for Broadway

In the week ending June 1, 2014, without fail, every single Broadway show grossed less money than it did the week before.  The fact that there was not a single exception to this fact is astonishing.  It is true that last week was a particularly good week for Broadway, with the entire industry earning $1.5 million dollars more than it had the week previously.  Still, the entire industry seems to have lost a “double or nothing” bet, as this week the gross was over $3 million less than it was last week.  The show that lost the least was Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which only grossed $3,232 less than it had the week before.  The biggest loser was Pippin, which earned only $488,036, a loss of $206,509 from the week before.  Still, despite this fact, four shows earned more than 100 percent of their gross potential (which is accounted for by the price of premium seats): these were Wicked which earned 107.35% of its potential, A Raisin in the Sun which grossed 108.45% of its potential, The Book of Mormon, which reaped in 117.07% of its potential, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which managed to earn 117.36% of its gross potential.

What could explain this phenomenon?

The previous week included Memorial Day weekend, during which tourists flocked to New York City, and New Yorkers took themselves out to the theatre.  However, this past week, the number of theatregoers not only went back to its pre-Memorial Day levels, but also doubled its loss.  Perhaps there was a saturation point with how much theatre people wanted to see, be they tourists or locals.  Or, perhaps the bout of warm weather and the onslaught of June, marking the true arrival of summer, persuaded people to get out of town for the weekend.  These are all just hypotheses, however, as the market of theatregoers ebbs and flows like any industry, and this week just happened to be a low.

Theatre subsidized by not-for-profits subsists despite low grosses

Shows performing on the lower end of the box office spectrum are often produced by not-for-profit theatre institutions.  Act One, the Lincoln Center bio-play about Moss Hart, earned $395,328 this week, which was only 36.4% of its gross potential.  Casa Valentina, the Tony Award nominated play by Harvey Fierstein about transvestitism in the 1960s, is staying afloat with a gross of only $245,811 because it is produced by Manhattan Theatre Club.  Violet, a musical revival produced by Roundabout Theatre Company, earned only 47.37% of its gross potential, which is particularly low for a musical, and yet it is still surviving.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending June 1, 2014:

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

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

“THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY” ENDS ON A HIGH NOTE

The Bridges of Madison County concluded its run on Sunday, May 18, 2014 due to slow ticket sales.  However, the announcement of its closing appears to have attracted last minute ticket buyers who wanted to see the show while they still had a chance.  The show reached its highest gross of its four-month run this past week, earning $590,791, which was an increase of $197,805 from the previous week.  Its second highest grossing week was the week ending March 16, 2014, where it grossed $476,374.  In this past week, the average ticket price was $73.71, which was almost the highest it has been (with the exception of two weeks), proving that audience members were willing to spend a lot of money for the opportunity to see this show.  This proves that slow ticket sales do not necessarily denote a lack of interest in a show; it may just mean that with so much competition on Broadway, a show may not get seen if it doesn’t break through to first or second priority, especially for tourists on vacation.  Furthermore, as successful musicals tend to be long-running, ticket buyers may have expected this show to be around for a while, and when closing was announced, they took advantage of the limited time to buy a ticket.

“ALL THE WAY” HITTING IT BIG

This past week, Robert Schenkkan’s play All the Way grossed $1,045,860, which was an increase of $217,564 from the previous week.  Starring Bryan Cranston as Lyndon B. Johnson, this play just won the Drama League Award for Best Play.  Perhaps the press about this win explains the upsurge in ticket buying, or perhaps interest in this popular show just happened to crescendo this past week, but in any case, this illustrates that All the Way is a strong contender for the Tony Award for Best Play, which will be announced in just a few more weeks.  Its competitors for that honor are Casa Valentina, Outside Mullingar, Act One, and Mothers and Sons.  Outside Mullingar has already closed, and the other three plays saw modest to no increase in ticket sales this past week.  If financial data has anything to do with awards recognition, then All the Way may just make it “all the way” to the big win.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending May 18, 2014:

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

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

TICKET SALES PICKING UP WITH THE WARM WEATHER
As opposed to the previous two weeks, which showed very slow ticket sales, this past week demonstrated an increase in ticket buying for Broadway.  The largest increase was the new revival of Cabaret, which was up $155,270 from the previous week, reaching an all-time weekly high of $783,761.  Furthermore, After Midnight increased by $135,410, grossing $658,463 in the week ending May 11, 2014.  This show, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, has grossed as much as $714,663 in past weeks, but this past week is the best the show has done in months.  Still, that gross only took the show to 66.15% of its gross capacity.

Other shows that saw an increase in sales this past week include Cinderella, which went up by $106,356, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which increased by $83,180, and the Daniel Radcliffe led play The Cripple of Inishmaan, which went up by $77,998.  Furthermore, The Bridges of Madison County increased by $106,038 after having announced that the show will close on May 18, 2014.  There is one more week of performances for this show to recoup a little more of its investment, but it will surely close at a financial loss.

KINKY BOOTS PLAYED ONLY A HALF WEEK OF PERFORMANCES
At first glance, the weekly gross of $668,658 appears to be an outrageous low for the 2013 Tony Award winning Best Musical Kinky Boots.  The musical has not earned less than $1,173,857 any week of the entire year 2014 so far, and that was on a frigidly cold week in early February.  This past week, it earned $808,892 less than the week before.  However, further examination of the data shows that Kinky Boots still earned 93.08% of its gross potential, as it only played 4 performances in the week ending May 11, 2014.  The reason for this is that it decided to take a short vacation.  From May 8 to May 13, 2014, the Al Hirschfield Theatre went dark, which is very unusual for a Broadway show to do during its run.  The only reason this is possible is because Univision, the international television network, is utilizing the theatre for upfront presentations throughout this period.  How did they convince the Nederlander Organization, who owns the theatre, to allow this?  In addition to paying for rental, Univision is paying for all eight performances that will be missed during that week.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending May 11, 2014:

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