Even with one fewer show on the Broadway boards, and overall attendance at the 33 productions down a smidge from the previous week, Broadway box office was up 22% during Thanksgiving week, scoring a plump $37,475,773 due to plumper holiday ticket prices.
Not coincidentally, average ticket price was up 22% from the previous week, hitting $144.53 (compared to $118.45 for the week prior to Thanksgiving).
Broadway attendance doesn’t typically skyrocket over the Thanksgiving holiday – that comes later, with Christmas and New Year’s – and 2022 was no different. Attendance for the 33 shows held steady from the week before, with the jump in receipts largely attributable to higher ticket prices.
Just a few random samples: The average ticket price for & Juliet during the week ending Nov. 20 was $112, jumping to $141 last week; A Strange Loop, $91 to $102; Funny Girl, $174 to $209; Hamilton, $192 to $251; MJ, $155 to $176; and The Music Man, $231 to $261.
Not to be left behind, Broadway’s comeback kid The Phantom of the Opera went from an average ticket of $137 to $172, and was one of only two productions – MJ was the other – playing to standing room only crowds. Phantom, which announced today that it would remain at the Majestic Theatre for an additional two months, closing in April rather than February, grossed $2,241,317 during the holiday week, a 26% jump over the previous week.
The other sell-out, MJ, took in a whopping $1,958,177, breaking its own 8-show-per-week house record again.
It’s too early to determine the promotional impact at the box office of participating in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – Lea Michele kicked off the event with Funny Girl‘s “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” and A Beautiful Noise, Some Like It Hot and The Lion King also were featured. Both Funny Girl and The Lion King had noticeable box office surges, but, as with others on the roster, that’s likely attributable to higher ticket prices. Similarly, Six, performing on the CBS Thanksgiving Parade, grossed $1,347,558, close to matching its best-ever week of $1,357,276 back in April.
Two shows had their official openings during Thanksgiving Week, one being, appropriately enough, A Christmas Carol starring Jefferson Mays in a critically lauded performance. Carol grossed $370,150, a $151,206 jump over the previous week, filling 62% of seats at the Nederlander with an average ticket price of $63.
The other opener was KPOP, taking $224,389 ($97,127 more than the previous week) and playing to 82% of capacity at Circle in the Square. Average ticket was a modest $50.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $770,487,751, with total attendance of 6,068,954 at about 87% of capacity.
The 33 productions reporting figures on Broadway last week were & Juliet, 1776, A Christmas Carol, Ain’t No Mo’, Aladdin, Almost Famous, A Beautiful Noise, Beetlejuice, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Death of a Salesman, Funny Girl, Hadestown, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Into the Woods, Kimberly Akimbo, KPOP, Leopoldstadt, The Lion King, Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool, The Music Man, MJ, Moulin Rouge!, Ohio State Murders, The Phantom of the Opera, The Piano Lesson, Six, A Strange Loop, Some Like It Hot, Take Me Out, Topdog/Underdog and Wicked.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For the complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.