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Broadway‘s insanely busy spring doesn’t really kick into full gear until next month when 14 new shows have their official openings, but with March as a sort of sign of things to come – five shows have opened or will soon this month – box office was strong last week.
In all, the 25 productions grossed $28,059,463 during the week ending March 17, a bump of 14% over the previous week, with attendance of 219,954 at a solid 94% of capacity. (Still, both grosses and attendance are down more than 15% from last year at this time when 29 shows were on the boards.)
Recent arrivals on the list found a welcoming Broadway. Some of the notable entries:
- The Notebook, which opened to decidedly mixed reviews, proved steadily popular with audiences. Opening night and press comps barely dented receipts: The show grossed $767,281, filling 98% of seats at the Schoenfeld. A new block of tickets just went on sale through November 24;
- An Enemy of the People, which also had some heavily comped press nights, was at $972,189, down from the $1.1M of the previous week, but still at a whopping 103% of capacity at Circle in the Square; the play, starring Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli and Victoria Pedretti, opened to great reviews (and some headlines) on March 18;
- Water For Elephants, starring Grant Gustin, was up to 94% of capacity at the Imperial in its final full week of previews before opening March 21; gross was $898,413;
- The Who’s Tommy played seven previews at the Nederlander (up from two previews the previous week), filling 90% of seats at the venue and grossing $891,875; opening night is March 28;
- Most recent arrival is The Outsiders, the musical adaptation of the 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film version. In its first preview at the Jacobs, the show was a sell-out, grossing $149,970. Opening night is April 11.
One more entry to note: Spamalot, which closes April 7 after weeks of inexplicably lackluster attendance, saw a jump of $190,178 over the previous week, to $862,505. Attendance at the St. James was up as well, no doubt with some last-chancers,but still just a should-be-better 83% of capacity. The closing will, however, open up the St. James for the highly praised and much-anticipated Sufjan Stevens musical Illinoise.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $1,219,561,719, with total attendance at 9,712,465.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.