Broadway Grosses Analysis: Box Office Slips as Audiences Wait for Tony Winners | Playbill

Grosses Broadway Grosses Analysis: Box Office Slips as Audiences Wait for Tony Winners

Broadway's top honors will be handed out June 11 in a ceremony the industry hopes will send ticket sales soaring.

Graphic by Vi Dang

Grosses on Broadway fell by nearly 6% last week, continuing a period of middling box-office receipts that started near the cut-off for Tony eligibility. With attendance also down by nearly 5%, it would appear that theatregoers are awaiting Tony Award winners to be named before making some ticket purchases. Luckily, this year's big night is June 11. Broadway insiders are hoping the televised ceremony will be a powerful commercial for an industry still somewhat struggling to make a full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down live performances worldwide.

But let's not overreact: Broadway still brought in a solid $31.14 million last week, with 263,096 people seeing a Broadway show. And, as in recent weeks, there continue to be some clear winners among the crop of the Main Stem's newest shows. Sweeney Todd has become a top-five mainstay, the best performing new production by a longshot; the Sondheim revival (and Best Revival of a Musical Tony nominee) brought in $1.85 million last week, bested only by fellow top-five regulars The Lion KingHamilton, and Wicked. For new musicals, & Juliet and Some Like It Hot are topping the list, with the former taking in $1.13 million last week to the latter's $924,598.15—the Marc Shaiman-Scott Wittman musical has hovered around the $1 million mark in recent weeks.

As for plays, A Doll's House has been a consistent top grosser among the season's new productions, bringing in $924,492 last week and followed closely by fellow new title Prima Facie's $914,769.72. Leopoldstadt was the top grossing 2023 Best Play nominee last week, taking in $557,895.91 at the box office. The Stoppard play, a top grosser when it opened last year, is now notably reporting box-office numbers well behind Prima Facie, which was left out of the Best Play Tony nods entirely, even after winning the Olivier for its West End debut, also starring Jodie Comer.

2023 Tony winners will be named June 11 in a starry ceremony at Washington Heights' United Palace in NYC, set to be broadcast live by CBS and stream via Paramount+. Stay tuned to Playbill.com/TonyAwards for all things Tony Awards, but keep in mind that the complete effect of a post-Tonys bump will likely not be available until June 19 at the earliest.

Take a look at the full report here.

The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):

(11 of 34 currently running productions)


The 90s Club
(shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):

(15 of 34 currently running productions)

 
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