The following was updated March 26 at 9:27 AM ET to reflect revised figures provided by The Broadway League.
It's a good time to be a star-led Broadway play. Two weeks after the Denzel Washington- and Jake Gyllenhaal-led Othello broke the record for top gross in one week by a Broadway play, the George Clooney-led Good Night, and Good Luck has broken that record to become the top grossing show on Broadway with $3.3 million last week, the only show to break the $3 million mark.
As with Othello, Good Night is reaching these highs by charging a steep premium to theatregoers who want to see Clooney in person. Their average ticket price last week was a staggering $302.07, with prices topping out at $775. It's interesting because this is another case where a production's venue can make all the difference in the world. Othello's tickets famously cap out at $897, and last week its audience paid a higher average—$303.15. Othello also played a whole additional performance compared to Good Night, which only had seven previews last week. But Othello's Barrymore Theatre holds just 1,043 theatregoers compared to Good Night at the Winter Garden's 1,545. Even with Othello's stratospheric ticket prices, Good Night will continue to beat it as long as ticket sales continue as they are currently, thanks to those 500 extra tickets per performance. Don't worry—the Kenny Leon-helmed Shakespeare revival took a more-than-adequate consolation prize as the third highest grosser on Broadway in its opening week, bringing in $2.53 million.
Both plays, plus the similarly starry Glengarry Glen Ross at the Palace, are leading a very busy spring at Broadway's box offices. Grosses were up 10% compared to the week previous, and up more than 44% compared to the same week last season (which, to be fair, had seven less shows than we have this year). The 33 currently running shows brought in $41.21 million, the highest sum since just after New Year's. Keeping in mind that six shows have yet to begin previews this season, much less open, it looks like we will be seeing quite the spring and summer on the Main Stem this year.
Hot tickets like Othello and Good Night, and Good Luck are also driving an increase in the overall paid ticket price on Broadway, which got to $137.76 last week. And those pricey tickets are not keeping people away, either—more than 95% of seats were filled, with 299,121 tickets sold overall. This season was already outpacing last season by a nice margin. That metric is currently sitting at 19%. With room yet to grow before the season closes next month, it feels safe to say that this season will beat last year's by a healthy amount. A fair amount of that is just that there have been more shows than last year. But there have only been 14% more performances for theatregoers to choose from, meaning that 19% growth is also coming from more ticket sales and, of course, higher prices.
Also seeing a nice uptick was Oh, Mary!, which got a new star in Tituss Burgess last week. That translated into a $327,277 increase at the Lyceum box office, putting the show back in The $1 Million Club for the first time since writer and original star Cole Escola's departure in January.
Along with Good Night and Othello, the top five top grossers were joined by Wicked in the number-two spot with $2.55 million, Glengarry Glen Ross in the fourth spot with $2.15 million, and Hamilton with $2.07 million. In a Broadway landscape almost always dominated by splashy musicals, it's certainly unusual to see three plays in that top five. Thanks, A-listers!
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Good Night, And Good Luck ($3.3 million)
- Wicked ($2.55 million)
- Othello ($2.53 million)
- Glengarry Glen Ross ($2.15 million)
- Hamilton ($2.07 million)
- The Lion King
- The Outsiders
- Gypsy
- Aladdin
- Cabaret
- MJ The Musical
- The Great Gatsby
- Death Becomes Her
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Oh, Mary!
- Hell's Kitchen
- Sunset Boulevard
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- & Juliet
(20 of 33 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- The Outsiders (102.34%)
- Good Night, And Good Luck (101.17%)
- Hamilton (100.98%)
- John Proctor is the Villain (100.95%)
- Glengarry Glen Ross (100.59%)
- Hadestown (100.31%)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (100.03%)
- Wicked (100%)
- The Last Five Years (100%)
- Othello (100%)
- Operation Mincemeat (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- & Juliet
- Buena Vista Social Club
- The Great Gatsby
- Cabaret
- Maybe Happy Ending
- The Book of Mormon
- The Lion King
- Aladdin
- Death Becomes Her
- Smash
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Purpose
- BOOP! The Musical
- SIX: The Musical
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Redwood
(28 of 33 currently running productions)
