Thanksgiving was last week, kicking off the winter holiday season—and to many people, that apparently meant seeing a Broadway show! Last week's grosses totaled a staggering $46 million, with 312,143 people seeing one of the 38 currently running shows at an average paid admission of $147.52. Compare that to Thanksgiving week last year, which brought in just $34.5 million, representing an increase of more than 33%. That performance may just keep Broadway industry members warmer than their radiators this winter, especially if it continues through New Year's.
Much of the disparity in the two Thanksgiving grosses comes from the amount of shows theatregoers had to choose from—38 compared to last year's 26—but then that, too, is a huge indicator of Broadway's continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are continuing to beat last season to date by more than 13% and $100 million, which is cause to let out a cheer and maybe a few jazz hands as the snow begins to fall.
Unsurprisingly, this year's success was led by family musicals. Wicked—still experiencing its best box office in years, likely due to its incredibly successful film version now in movie theatres—was the number one earner, bringing in nearly $3 million. It's no surprise to see The Lion King and Hamilton also still in the top five—those shows took the number two and three spots, respectively. New to the top five was Elf. With families clearly eager to get into the holiday spirit, the musical brought in just under $2 million, an astonishingly good performance for a limited run holiday show, or any show for that matter. This year's Best Musical Tony winner The Outsiders rounded out the top five highest grossers, bringing in $1.8 million.
But then a week like last week made winners pretty much all across the board. Maybe Happy Ending's steady box-office climb got a nice bump to more than $700K and an attendance increase of more than 700. The show's next job on the way to hit status will be getting ticket prices up. It achieved last week's markers with an average ticket price of just $101.67, making the well-reviewed show still one of the best buys on the Main Stem. Chicago had its best-ever Thanksgiving week, and The Outsiders top-five performance was the show's highest gross yet of its entire run. Gypsy also continues to show the makings of a megahit, earning $1.6 million in only its second week of previews and just seven performances instead of the standard eight.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Wicked ($2.93 million)
- The Lion King ($2.88 million)
- Hamilton ($2.58 million)
- Elf
- The Outsiders
- Aladdin
- Sunset Blvd.
- MJ The Musical
- The Great Gatsby
- Gypsy
- Hell's Kitchen
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Back to the Future
- & Juliet
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Oh, Mary!
- Death becomes Her
- Cabaret
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Book of Mormon
- SIX: The Musical
- Hadestown
- Once Upon a Mattress
(23 of 38 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Romeo and Juliet (102.63%)
- The Outsiders (102.09%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Stereophonic
- & Juliet
- Hamilton
- Once Upon a Mattress
- Hadestown
- The Book of Mormon
- The Lion King
- Death Becomes Her
- Aladdin
- Back to the Future
- Elf
- Suffs
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- The Great Gatsby
- Gypsy
- Chicago
- Hell's Kitchen
- Cabaret
(22 of 38 currently running productions)
