Oh, box office! Broadway's Oh, Mary!, which opened at the Lyceum Theatre July 11, saw a notable increase in ticket sales last week with press and media comps finally in the rearview. Cole Escola's offbeat, unhinged comedy has proved itself a seat filler, debuting in The $1 Million Club with eight sold-out performances and tickets averaging at $147.35. With under 900 seats available in the Lyceum, the production is not likely to become a juggernaut, but with a small company and relatively simple physical production, that's likely just fine. Even with those caveats, the production out-grossed musicals like The Who's Tommy, Water for Elephants, & Juliet, and Six—along with 2024 Best Play Tony winner Stereophonic.
Oh, Mary!'s wild success is not entirely surprising. The Off-Broadway run earlier this year at the Lucille Lortel quickly became a multi-extended sell-out and a hot ticket for celebrities. Now it looks like we can likely expect similar treatment on the Main Stem. The production announced an extension just earlier today.
Elsewhere on Broadway, The Outsiders broke a house record at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre for the fifth consecutive week, continuing an upward trajectory for the Best Musical Tony winner. But even with that Tony Award, it hasn't caught up with fellow nominee Hell's Kitchen quite yet. The Alicia Keys musical held strong in the top five highest grossers, along with mainstays The Lion King, Wicked, and Hamilton, and the Tony-nominated revival of Cabaret, which is shaping up to become a top-five mainstay itself.
It also looks like audiences rushed to see (and feel) The Who's Tommy before the production played its final performance July 21. The revival's final week on the boards saw near sell-out-level audiences and box-office receipts in excess of $1 million.
Family shows continue to be the most attended, thanks in part to their large theatres. Mainstays Wicked, The Lion King, and Aladdin topped that list, with newcomers The Wiz and Hell's Kitchen rounding out the top five.
Over all of the 27 running shows, Broadway brought in a healthy $31.42 million, up by more than 5% from last week. The average ticket was $125.85. We lost two productions last week—Home and The Who's Tommy—so an overall drop next week is to be expected.
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- The Lion King ($2.36 million)
- Wicked ($2.16 million)
- Hamilton
- Hell's Kitchen
- Cabaret
- Aladdin
- MJ The Musical
- The Outsiders
- The Wiz
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- The Great Gatsby
- Back to the Future
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Oh, Mary!
- The Who's Tommy
(15 of 27 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- The Outsiders (102.33%)
- Hamilton (101.32%)
- Hadestown (100.83%)
- Hell's Kitchen (100.73%)
- Job (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Stereophonic (100%)
- Wicked
- The Book of Mormon
- The Great Gatsby
- The Who's Tommy
- Cabaret
- The Lion King
- The Wiz
- Home
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Aladdin
- SIX: The Musical
- MJ The Musical
- Suffs
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- & Juliet
(22 of 27 currently running productions)
