No doubt about: The big guns of Broadway‘s spring season are arriving fast and furious, and boosting box office figures from receipts to ticket prices. Another newcomer – Good Night, And Good Luck, starring George Clooney, last week became the latest member of the $2 Million Club with just five previews and just weeks after Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, began regularly hitting the rarefied $2 million in weekly receipts.
Also last week Glengarry Glen Ross, headed by Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr, came very close to the $2M mark with $1,907,467, a house record at the Palace Theatre – and that’s just for seven preview performances; the full eight-performance schedule should push it over the edge. (Opening night is March 31.)
Meanwhile, The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring Succession‘s Sarah Snook in all the roles, pulled in $848,904 for its first six, sold-out previews at the Music Box Theatre. (Opening night is March 27).
The previewing Smash, based on the cult hit TV show of the same name, raked in $715,631 for five previews, with the Imperial Theatre at 95% of capacity. (Opening night is April 10.)
Other previewing productions made fine box office showings, if more earthbound than the starry mega-grossers. Buena Vista Social Club, in previews at the Schoenfeld, took in $795,812, filling 99.6% of seats. (Opening night is March 19.)
Operation Mincemeat, the London hit on a seemingly similar path in New York, filled all seats at the Golden, and grossed $735,450 despite heavy press comps. (Opening night is March 20.)
And Boop! The Betty Boop Musical filled 97% of seats at the Broadhurst, grossing $403,656 for just five previews. (Opening night is April 5.)
Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ follow-up to his smash Appropriate, filled 96% of seats at the Hayes in its last week of previews (the Wednesday matinee was canceled). The play opened last night to excellent reviews, so look for that weekly gross (there were lots of press comps) of $259,019 to improve in coming weeks.
‘Purpose’
Marc J. Franklin
Along with big stars and big grosses comes big ticket prices. While the average ticket price for all 31 Broadway shows was $134.96, the average ticket for Othello was $338.83, while Good Night, And Good Luck was at $303.75. Glengarry was at $207.40. And premium ticket prices were at an entirely different level of the stratosphere: Glengarry at $799; Good Night, $775; and Othello, $897.
Top grossers for the week were Othello, $2,824,493; Wicked, $2,490,180; Good Night, And Good Luck, $2,358,888; Hamilton, $2,009,043; The Lion King, $1,994,528; and Glengarry Glen Ross, $1,907,467.
In all, the 31 shows grossed $37,459,896 for the week ending March 16. Total attendance was 277,556.
Season to date, Broadway, in the 43rd week of the 2024-25 season, has grossed $1,445,063,624 up about 18% over last year at this time, with total attendance of 11,347,483 up 17%.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office visit the League’s website.