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Broadway box office overall held steady last week, even as the recent Tony Award nominations already seemed to lose some of their power to boost ticket sales. Some shows with nominations saw declines at the box office, from Good Night, Oscar and Some Like It Hot to Leopoldstadt and New York, New York.
For the most part, the box office slips were small, though grosses for Good Night, Oscar, starring Sean Hayes, were down about 24% from the previous week, with a gross of $550,970 and attendance at just 59% of capacity at the Belasco.
With the much-discussed Tony Awards set for June 11, winning productions will be better poised to see some trophy-related box office mojo throughout the summer months.
Overall, the 34 Broadway productions grossed $33,088,397 for the first week of the 2023-24 season, up less that a percentage point from the previous week and about the same as the same week last season. Attendance was 276,158, a tiny 0.2% slip from the previous week. Average ticket price for last week – the week ending May 28 – was $119.82.
More than half of the productions – 18 of the 34, to be exact – played to houses with at least 90% of seats filled. They were & Juliet, A Doll’s House, Aladdin, Fat Ham, Hadestown, Kimberly Akimbo, MJ, Moulin Rouge!, Parade, Prima Facie, Shucked, Six, Summer, 1976, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and Wicked. Two productions – Hamilton and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – were sell outs.
The highest grossers of the week were The Lion King ($2,245,982), Hamilton ($1,894,229) and Sweeney Todd ($1,882,084). Also hitting the $1 million mark: & Juliet, Aladdin, Funny Girl, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, MJ, Moulin Rouge, Parade, Six, Some Like It Hot, The Book of Mormon and Wicked.
Shucked had its best week to date, grossing $809,278 with attendance at 97% of capacity at the Nederlander.
Productions playing to 75% of capacity or less were A Beautiful Noise, Bad Cinderella, Good Night, Oscar, Grey House (with co-star Tatiana Maslany out sick for some performances), Leopoldstadt, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and The Thanksgiving Play.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website