In The Week Ending November 9, 2014, The Entire Industry Was The On The Up. The Elephant Man, Starring Bradley Cooper Began Performances.


A Complete 180 From Last Week

Whereas the previous week was a particularly low one for the Broadway box office, the week ending November 9, 2014 was a complete turnaround.

Of the 35 shows presently running on Broadway, only three saw a decrease in sales from the week before: The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia! (which are both long-running musicals for which this slight decrease isn’t particularly significant), and The Country House (a play struggling to stay afloat).

Only Three Shows Saw Decrease From Last Week

Otherwise, the week was a serious improvement for most shows. In terms of increase from this week as compared to last week, the top earner was Jez Butterworth’s The River starring Hugh Jackman, which grossed $568,906 more this week than the week before (where it had only played its first partial week of 3 performances).

In its first full week of eight performances, The River grossed $917,008, representing 104.89% of its gross potential, and selling 102.7% of its seats across the week. The top grossing shows this past week were The Lion King at $1,737,729, The Book of Mormon at $1,638,827, Wicked at $1,621,169, Aladdin at $1,410,648, and It’s Only a Play at $1,375,174 – all of which showed a substantial increase from the week before.

New Show: “The Elephant Man”

The Elephant Man began previews on November 7, 2014, with just 4 performances in its first week. It has exited with a bang, having grossed $520,087 across four performances, which represents 113.36% of its gross capacity.

With a top ticket price of $298.00, the average paid ticket was a remarkable $163.45. Of the total 3,096 seats, there were somehow 3,182 of them sold. This show stars Bradley Cooper, a major Hollywood favorite who is well-known for his roles in such films as Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Place Beyond the Pines, and The Hangover Trilogy.

Bradley Cooper Brings In Audiences

He was nominated for Academy Awards for both Silver Linings Playbook (Best Actor) and American Hustle (Best Supporting Actor). In The Elephant Man, he plays a disfigured man in Britain who uses purely his own physicality, rather than makeup or special effects, to convey the disability. This is his second time on Broadway; his first was the role of Pip and Theo in 2006’s Three Days of Rain.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending November 9, 2014:
Broadway-Show-Ticket-Analysis-11-09-14
Show GrossGross Total Attn %Cap AvgPdAdm
A DELICATE BALANCE $857,375 6,416 100.00% $133.63
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER $815,750 6,801 93.73% $119.95
ALADDIN $1,410,648 13,171 95.55% $107.10
BEAUTIFUL $1,330,829 8,214 100.07% $162.02
CABARET $741,877 6,379 89.29% $116.30
CHICAGO $479,182 5,926 68.59% $80.86
CINDERELLA $629,743 8,408 60.02% $74.90
DISGRACED $512,646 6,500 88.51% $78.87
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH $624,148 6,370 90.37% $97.98
IF/THEN $569,810 7,556 72.04% $75.41
IT’S ONLY A PLAY $1,375,174 8,544 99.91% $160.95
JERSEY BOYS $826,987 7,909 80.51% $104.56
KINKY BOOTS $1,147,857 9,719 85.31% $118.10
LES MISÉRABLES $683,328 8,168 72.46% $83.66
LOVE LETTERS $393,746 5,086 59.53% $77.42
MAMMA MIA! $586,427 7,549 80.93% $77.68
MATILDA $892,409 9,892 86.35% $90.22
MOTOWN THE MUSICAL $1,025,917 10,480 86.93% $97.89
ON THE TOWN $834,113 10,110 67.44% $82.50
ONCE $459,801 5,491 64.81% $83.74
PIPPIN $449,207 5,524 69.75% $81.32
ROCK OF AGES $323,107 3,778 81.00% $85.52
SIDE SHOW $413,928 7,135 78.23% $58.01
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,638,827 8,752 102.63% $187.25
THE COUNTRY HOUSE $209,004 3,722 71.58% $56.15
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME $895,900 7,922 97.27% $113.09
THE ELEPHANT MAN $520,087 3,182 102.78% $163.45
THE LAST SHIP $543,860 7,145 66.21% $76.12
THE LION KING $1,737,729 13,502 99.28% $128.70
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $720,968 8,710 67.83% $82.77
THE REAL THING $490,862 5,823 98.36% $84.30
THE RIVER $917,008 5,716 102.66% $160.43
THIS IS OUR YOUTH $349,111 4,805 56.61% $72.66
WICKED $1,621,169 13,524 93.45% $119.87
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU $562,949 6,082 70.85% $92.56
Totals: $27,591,478 264,011 82.88% $102.46
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