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Every show gave its usual full eight performances — and China Doll put in seven, one more than its typical load of six. Accordingly, the collective Broadway box-office numbers rose from $15,977,958 to $23,617,252. Attendance jumped from 174,717 to 247,475.
These numbers were in the same ballpark as the Broadway week before the blizzard struck, if a tad lower in both monies and bodies. Thirty-one attractions were on the boards, one down from the week previous.
As expected, given the additional performance, David Mamet’s China Doll pulled in more cash last week. The box-office tally was $658,216 — an huge increase of $299,288 over the week before. Attendance was way up, too: 6,346 as compared to 2,573 the week before. Houses were at 86 percent capacity — the best showing since the Al Pacino starrer opened up for review. China Doll announced it had recouped its full investment two weeks ago.
Also ending its run last week was the new British would-be-history play, King Charles III, which imagined what might happen if and when England’s Prince Charles ever became sovereign. The play was a healthy performer during much of its run, if not a sell-out attraction, benefitting from largely positive notices. During its final week, seats were 92 percent full and the box-office collecting $732,328 — $274,633 more than the previous week — amounting to 73 percent of the potential. (Hamilton has a top premium ticket price ceiling of $475.) The Humans, the Off-Broadway hit about a family getting together over Thanksgiving, put in its first complete week of previews at the tiny Helen Hayes Theatre last week. Capacity was decent, clocking in at 84 percent. Box office ($240,050) was 48 percent of the potential.
The sell-outs of the week were the usual Hamilton and The Book of Mormon. The former has the highest average ticket price of the week: $161.21. It also had the highest, by far, box-office-potential number, bringing in 129.79 percent of the possible take. The musical also took in more dollars than any other show, with $1,732,653.
The new revival of The Color Purple showed well at the Jacobs, filling 97 percent of its seats, and taking in 78 percent of its box-office potential. Among other new shows, the fresh revival of Noises Off played to 92 percent capacity and collected 68 percent of its possible box-office take.
