Elf the Musical, which returned to Broadway last month for a limited run, grossed $2,230,419 across eight performances for the week ending December 22, breaking the house record at the Marquis Theatre to highlight the pre-holiday box office frame.
The revival, which stars Mean Girls Tony nominee Grey Hanson as Buddy the Elf and Sean Astin as Santa, beat its previous week’s gross of $2,033,784 and grew to 98% capacity at the massive Marquis. The show was fourth overall in box office for the week behind only the usual suspects Wicked (a frame-leading $3,024,095 at the Gershwin), The Lion King ($2,897,476 at the Minskoff) and Hamilton ($2,491,550 at the Richard Rodgers), all of which also saw week-over-week gains.
Based on the now-holiday staple 2023 movie starring Will Ferrell and directed by Jon Favreau, Elf the Musical first opened on Broadway during the 2010-2011 season with a book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, with songs by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin. It returned to New York for a 2012-2013 holiday run with a revised book. It had record-breaking holiday runs in the West End in 2022 and 2023.
For the frame, Elf surpassed the previous Marquis record held by Beetlejuice, which grossed $2,146,200 million the week ending January 8, 2023. Elf is set to run through January 5.
Other notable box office number for the 31st week of the 2024-2025 Broadway season included a strong first full week for All In: Comedy About Love, based on the short stories by Simon Rich, which added two shows compared with last week’s five at the Hudson Theatre and grossed $1,327,148. Overall, All In was one of 10 shows to sell out for the frame, joined by Chicago, Hadestown, Hamilton, Oh, Mary!, Romeo & Juliet, Stereophonic, Suffs, The Outsiders and Wicked.
Gypsy, with Audra McDonald as Mama Rose under the direction of George C. Wolfe, saw $1,567,014 across three previews and five performances, down from the previous week’s eight previews ($1,818,235).
Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre grossed $234,510 and has already extended its run two weeks to go through February 2.
In all, the 34 Broadway productions on the boards last week (The Hills of California closed on Sunday) grossed $44,466,554, with attendance at 302,828, both figures more than 32% better than last year at this time. Average ticket price was $146.84, $1.19 greater than last year.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $1,036,648,946, up more than 15% over last year at this time, with total attendance of 8,274,472 also up about 15%.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.