Broadway Box Office: ‘Hamilton’ Nears Whopping $3.8 Million in Pre-Christmas Week
Remember when a $2 million week was a big deal at the Broadway box office? That not-so-long-ago time is looking a little quaint these days, when “Hamilton” stands poised to break the $4 million mark.
“Hamilton” raked in a huge $3,797,844 last week — and that was even before we hit the days between between Christmas and New Year’s, when sales across the board really go through the roof. With the show’s available premium seats soaring to $1,150 this week, the smash musical looks to be setting itself up for a $4 million holiday. (It was less than a decade ago that “Wicked” rang in the first $2 million week in 2009; the show was the first to break $3 million in 2013.)
With year-end city tourism driving up demand, the average price paid per Broadway ticket stepped up to $146.12. As shows like “Springsteen on Broadway,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “Dear Evan Hansen” pull in higher and higher prices, next week’s average could well top $150.
Several shows only played seven performances last week as opposed to the usual eight, thanks in part to holiday scheduling that will see a lot of those titles play a nine-show week. Nonetheless, 15 shows managed to top $1 million last week, with “The Band’s Visit” ($1,144,874 for seven) doing notably well for a recent opener in an abbreviated week. Meanwhile, a couple of newer, well-reviewed productions gained steam, but haven’t hit the stratosphere: “SpongeBob SquarePants” ($930,883) and, in one of Broadway’s smaller venues, “Once on This Island” ($594,626 for seven).
The top-selling play of the week was “Meteor Shower” ($812,760 for seven), the buzzy Steve Martin comedy that stars Amy Schumer, but the newly opened “Farinelli and the King” ($812,129 for seven), starring stage favorite Mark Rylance, was hot on its heels.
Even with many shows logging short weeks, overall Broadway grosses still managed to uptick to $35.8 million for 32 productions. Attendance dipped to 244,973 (or 87% of total capacity), but expect it to go up — way, way up — next week.
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