Broadway continued its winter freeze last week, with box office dropping 11% to a slim $16,494,289 for its meager 21-show roster. Attendance for the week ending Jan. 23 was 152,135, a slip of 6% from the previous week.
The reduced roster – the previous week had 25 productions on the boards – did seem to help at least some per-show attendances: In all, total attendance was at 75% of Broadway capacity, a noticeable jump from the previous week’s 66%.
The figures also reflect the reduced prices of the twice-annual Broadway Week promotion (actually, nearly a month this year, ending Feb. 13), with two-for-one tickets available at many shows.
Despite a modest $108 average ticket price, many potential theater-goers apparently remained reluctant to venture out during New York’s still-concerning – if significantly receding – Omicron wave. No Broadway production last week saw any canceled performances last week due to illness.
Still, four productions were gone from the roster, including To Kill a Mockingbird (on hiatus until June 1) and the closed Flying Over Sunset, Ain’t Too Proud and Clyde’s. Next week’s roster will be thinner still, with the departures of Girl From The North Country (eyeing a potential spring return) and Slave Play.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $404,048,064, with total attendance of 3,227,888 at about 80% of capacity.
The Broadway League is not releasing box office numbers for individual shows this season, in a break with tradition, so the exact impact of audience declines on each particular production is unverifiable.
Productions reporting performances on Broadway during the week ending Jan. 23 were Aladdin; The Book of Mormon; Chicago; Come From Away; Company; David Byrne’s American Utopia; Dear Evan Hansen; Girl From the North Country; Hadestown; Hamilton; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; The Lion King; MJ; Moulin Rouge! The Musical!; The Music Man; The Phantom of the Opera; Six; Skeleton Crew; Slave Play; Tina; and Wicked.