Broadway Grosses w/e 7/9/2017 – An argument against stars in your show.

This week, the grosses took a hit from not one but two stars gone AWOL.  One, Bette Midler, returns this week, but the other, Josh Groban, who left Natasha Pierre on July 2nd, will probably not occupy a dressing room in a Broadway theater anytime soon (his team of agents and managers are probably drooling to get him back out in the big time touring circuit since they lost him for almost a year).


The downside of premium pricing is that when stars leave, the box office can plummet as much as it can rise when they are in residence.


Or, you can be a show like Dear Evan Hansen, and do 1.7mm a week without a bona fide star (not to mention an onstage cast of only 8 and a band of about the same, making its profit margins one of the best on Broadway).


Takeaway?  The same I said in this blog, many, many years ago when I analyzed the longest running musicals on Broadway.


Overall, grosses were down a bit from the week before, but I’ve always found that stat misleading.  Week to week isn’t a way to compare how any business is doing.  To compare apples to sort-of-the-same-apples, you have to look at how we did in the same frame, 52 weeks before.  And when you do that, well, we were up over $4mm, bringing us to up a whopping 20% on the gross from last year.


And we haven’t even gotten to the fall yet!


Below are the grosses for all of the shows on Broadway for the w/e 7/9/17.
Show Name GrossGross  TotalAttn  %Capacity AvgPdAdm
1984 $369,888.08 5,863 75.55% $63.09
A BRONX TALE THE MUSICAL $660,642.50 7,001 83.82% $94.36
A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 $450,676.00 5,532 89.23% $81.47
ALADDIN $1,618,189.00 13,290 96.19% $121.76
ANASTASIA $1,050,635.30 8,713 95.29% $120.58
BANDSTAND $554,553.35 6,799 82.27% $81.56
BEAUTIFUL $569,780.39 5,354 65.23% $106.42
CATS $772,602.50 8,712 79.20% $88.68
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY $1,088,314.00 10,725 89.61% $101.47
CHICAGO $694,507.92 7,660 88.66% $90.67
COME FROM AWAY $1,252,968.50 8,528 101.91% $146.92
DEAR EVAN HANSEN $1,725,297.28 7,990 101.50% $215.93
GROUNDHOG DAY $757,537.60 7,992 81.35% $94.79
HAMILTON $3,061,008.00 10,755 101.77% $284.61
HELLO, DOLLY! $722,573.54 8,881 76.77% $81.36
INDECENT $334,409.44 6,177 71.96% $54.14
KINKY BOOTS $1,320,884.15 11,203 98.34% $117.90
MARVIN’S ROOM $194,304.60 3,927 76.43% $49.48
MISS SAIGON $730,221.25 9,053 65.15% $80.66
NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 $890,914.20 8,634 94.84% $103.19
ON YOUR FEET! $603,959.40 7,906 60.78% $76.39
OSLO $669,470.00 7,727 92.25% $86.64
SCHOOL OF ROCK $1,028,058.08 10,479 86.01% $98.11
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,069,773.00 7,620 102.12% $140.39
THE LION KING $2,262,716.00 13,519 99.64% $167.37
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $1,091,325.90 11,781 91.75% $92.63
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG $328,094.25 5,122 74.97% $64.06
WAITRESS $687,685.60 6,938 82.99% $99.12
WAR PAINT $601,173.50 7,165 76.68% $83.90
WICKED $1,920,520.00 15,125 98.16% $126.98
TOTALS $29,082,683.33 256,171 86.01% $107.15
+/- THIS WEEK LAST SEASON +$4,220,025.90      
PERCENTAGE +/- THIS WEEK LAST SEASON +16.97%

*Broadway Grosses courtesy of The Broadway League.

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