As is often the way in these tales, pricey tickets are helping make certain shows consistently more lucrative even as attendance remains solid across all of Broadway. The top of the chart has become fairly predictable these days, with the top five slots going to The Lion King, Hamilton, Merrily We Roll Along (in its fourth house record-breaking week at the Hudson Theatre), Wicked, and Sweeney Todd-all within striking range of the $2 Million Club. Producers will be looking to see if this becomes the beginning of a trend as we enter peak tourist and family outing season. Leading the charge were Sweeney Todd and Back to the Future (both of which took in $200,000 more than they did the week previous) and Hamilton, Harmony, Some Like It Hot, MJ: The Musical, Gutenberg! The Musical, A Beautiful Noise, Shucked, and & Juliet-all of which saw gains of more than $100,000 from the week prior. Grosses were up by nearly 10% last week between all 28 currently running shows, with capacity at a healthy 90% and average ticket prices holding steady at $123.69.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Broadway seems to be gearing up for a good, old-fashioned holiday surge.
