Broadway Grosses Analysis: I Need That Shaping Up to Be the Season's Highest-Grossing New Play | Playbill

Industry News Broadway Grosses Analysis: I Need That Shaping Up to Be the Season's Highest-Grossing New Play

The starry Merrily We Roll Along revival continues its box-office success, overtaking even Hamilton to be Broadway's second-highest grosser.

Graphic by Vi Dang

Roundabout Theatre Company's I Need That is shaping up to be one of the season's best performing new plays, bringing in $572,840 last week. That total is a long way away from putting the show in Broadway's top grossers, but for a play in only its second week of previews, it's an impressive performance. Star Danny DeVito has helped the new production already become the second-highest grossing play, beaten only by family favorite Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

But at the true top of the list, the starry revival of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along is continuing its upward trajectory, surpassing fellow high-grossing Sondheim revival Sweeney Todd to become the second best performing production on the Main Stem, beaten only by The Lion King. Bringing in $1.8 million at an average ticket price of a staggering $235.60 (the week's highest by nearly $70), the musical may well join The $2 Million Club as we enter the holiday season. Last week's take broke the house record at the Hudson for an eight-performance week, besting a title previously held by the Matthew Broderick-Sarah Jessica Parker–led revival of Plaza Suite.

Usual suspects WickedHamilton, and Sweeney Todd filled out the rest of last week's top five. With Merrily around now, it looks like Sweeney and MJ may be duking it out for that fifth spot week to week.

Along with I Need That, this season's new productions have been performing pretty well. Merrily is, of course, the current champion of the newest shows, but Back to the Future and Gutenberg! The Musical! are doing quite well also. The latter has been steadily increasing every week since beginning previews in September, with last week's $932,436.34 the closest yet to seeing the show join The $1 Million Club.

Overall, grosses are holding steady, rising slightly by 2.58% to $28 million over the 28 currently running shows. So far, we've seen a 2% increase in grosses for the season overall compared to last year, and an almost 7% increase in attendance. Both of those figures are helped by having more shows this time around, but encouraging to see nonetheless.

Take a look at the full report here.

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

(13 of 28 currently running productions)

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

  • Hamilton (101.01%)
  • Merrily We Roll Along (100%)
  • The Lion King
  • Sweeney Todd
  • Jaja's African Hair Braiding
  • Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  • Wicked
  • The Book of Mormon
  • Hadestown
  • Aladdin
  • SIX: The Musical
  • & Juliet
  • MJ The Musical
  • I Need That
  • Gutenberg! The Musical!
  • Back to the Future
  • Kimberly Akimbo

(17 of 28 currently running productions)

 
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