By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on December 16, 2015 10:55 AM
Dive Into Our Weekly Broadway Analysis: Uncover The Negligible Overall Change In Grosses, 'School Of Rock's' Recovery, 'China Doll's' Box Office Dip Despite Al Pacino's Star Power, And More
This Week’s Notable Movements on Broadway are:
An Overall Week of Equanimity on Broadway
In the week ending December 13, 2015, the overall Broadway industry saw a series of ups and downs across the 37 shows running, but the resultant figures exhibited little collective change. No shows began previews or closed between this past week and the week before, and the overall weekly gross among these 37 shows only went up by $232,186, a basically negligible amount on this scale. The largest increase was seen by School of Rock – the Musical, which had a bit of a slump week the week before, perhaps due to papering seats in the week before their opening night.
This past week, the weekly gross was $956,818, which was an increase of $287,790 from the week before that. Still, there is more room for growth for his Andrew Lloyd Webber reboot of a movie, as that higher gross was still just 66.9% of its gross potential in the Winter Garden Theatre. In a bit of a surprise, the next biggest increase in ticket sales this past week was seen by Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games, which went up by $143,987 to reach a still low gross of $391,608. Despite still reaching the low gross potential percentage of 26.1%, this 37% increase from the week before is testament to increased marketing efforts on behalf of this struggling Irish dance show.
“China Doll” Took a Slight Dip After Reviews
The biggest dissonance between quality of reviews and box office performance this season may very well be China Doll, the new David Mamet play starring Al Pacino that has continued to reap in gloriously at the box office despite reports of a terrible production on most fronts. Upon the show’s delayed opening on the night of December 4, 2015, the reviews revealed the show an all-around critical flop. Rare is it that so many critics from a wide array of press outlets all agree that a show is not worth the hype. However, this message does not seem to have gotten through to ticket buyers, who still are paying top dollar to see this movie star in the flesh, in a play written by the rare playwright who has become a household name.
In the first full week since that opening, the box office did take a dip. Of all the shows this past week, China Doll saw the largest decrease in its weekly gross, with a decrease of $187,026. However, the weekly gross was still not bad at $922,936, representing 96.4% of its gross potential. Furthermore, average audience capacity was 93.4%, a number that is not too bad despite it being a decrease from 97.2% the week before.
Broadway Show Cuts Weekly Performance
The other reason this gross took a dip is that the production only played six performances this past week, down from its usual seven. While it is standard for most shows to play 8 shows in a week, China Doll is entitled in more ways than one; beyond taking in box office for a show that all have decided is terrible, it also can pick and choose how many performances to play in a week, at the whim of its high-profile lead actor and creative team.
The Following are the Broadway Ticket Sales Numbers for the Week Ending December 13, 2015:
| Show Name | GrossGross | TotalAttn | %Capacity | AvgPdAdm |
| A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER | $533,824.50 | 5,990 | 82.55% | $89.12 |
| A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE | $541,565.00 | 6,492 | 76.77% | $83.42 |
| ALADDIN | $1,586,493.50 | 13,435 | 97.24% | $118.09 |
| ALLEGIANCE | $398,204.07 | 4,960 | 58.66% | $80.28 |
| AN AMERICAN IN PARIS | $1,274,776.00 | 10,389 | 77.35% | $122.70 |
| BEAUTIFUL | $1,137,047.00 | 8,030 | 97.83% | $141.60 |
| CHICAGO | $497,277.25 | 5,917 | 68.48% | $84.04 |
| CHINA DOLL | $922,935.57 | 5,991 | 93.41% | $154.05 |
| DAMES AT SEA | $116,501.00 | 2,133 | 45.73% | $54.62 |
| FIDDLER ON THE ROOF | $1,047,622.40 | 11,729 | 85.89% | $89.32 |
| FINDING NEVERLAND | $898,499.00 | 8,855 | 73.60% | $101.47 |
| FOOL FOR LOVE | $250,127.00 | 3,467 | 77.51% | $72.15 |
| FUN HOME | $582,966.40 | 5,194 | 87.74% | $112.24 |
| HAMILTON | $1,639,633.50 | 10,727 | 101.50% | $152.85 |
| HAND TO GOD | $192,646.50 | 3,363 | 54.45% | $57.28 |
| JERSEY BOYS | $691,897.80 | 6,650 | 67.69% | $104.04 |
| KING CHARLES III | $577,162.40 | 5,309 | 67.92% | $108.71 |
| KINKY BOOTS | $983,038.50 | 8,983 | 78.85% | $109.43 |
| LES MISÉRABLES | $681,566.00 | 7,599 | 67.41% | $89.69 |
| LORD OF THE DANCE: DANGEROUS GAMES | $391,608.30 | 5,913 | 38.98% | $66.23 |
| MATILDA | $776,648.00 | 8,803 | 76.84% | $88.23 |
| MISERY | $752,623.30 | 6,246 | 66.39% | $120.50 |
| ON YOUR FEET! | $1,331,812.40 | 11,752 | 90.34% | $113.33 |
| SCHOOL OF ROCK | $956,818.00 | 10,437 | 91.49% | $91.68 |
| SOMETHING ROTTEN! | $865,216.00 | 9,191 | 74.37% | $94.14 |
| SPRING AWAKENING | $380,832.00 | 5,514 | 67.18% | $69.07 |
| SYLVIA | $284,987.50 | 5,544 | 64.71% | $51.40 |
| THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,593,849.00 | 8,712 | 102.16% | $182.95 |
| THE COLOR PURPLE | $696,029.80 | 8,370 | 99.55% | $83.16 |
| THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME | $558,174.00 | 6,091 | 74.79% | $91.64 |
| THE GIN GAME | $356,744.50 | 3,763 | 67.03% | $94.80 |
| THE ILLUSIONISTS – LIVE ON BROADWAY | $733,198.75 | 7,712 | 69.70% | $95.07 |
| THE KING AND I | $782,810.00 | 6,374 | 76.10% | $122.81 |
| THE LION KING | $2,008,986.00 | 13,390 | 98.69% | $150.04 |
| THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA | $741,288.07 | 8,275 | 64.45% | $89.58 |
| THÉRÈSE RAQUIN | $369,160.05 | 5,001 | 61.35% | $73.82 |
| WICKED | $1,732,290.00 | 13,927 | 96.34% | $124.38 |
| Totals | $29,866,859.06 | 280,228 | 76.79% | $100.75 |
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
