A lion roars on Broadway as box office hauls reveal winners
NEW YORK (AP) — It was feast or famine at the Broadway box office as 2022 wound down, with eye-popping revenue for popular shows — including a staggering new Broadway record for “The Lion King” — not lifting all strugglers.
Twenty-one of the 33 shows available broke the $1 million mark for the week ending Sunday, and “The Lion King” made history with the biggest haul ever — an astonishing $4,315,264 over nine performances for a 25-year-old show with no stars.
“The Music Man” was close behind with two high-wattage stars in Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman — $3,971,531 over nine shows — followed by “Wicked” with $3,152,679. The top average ticket price went to “The Music Man” with $285.80, just about a dollar more than “The Lion King.”
All shows bar one — “A Christmas Carol” — saw their numbers grow over the week ending Sunday. However, the usual bump was barely evident for “Topdog/Underdog,” with just $345,567 over eight shows, and “Ohio State Murders” pulling in just $311,893 to a half-empty theater over nine performances despite the presence of six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald. A revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy “Between Riverside and Crazy” starring the rapper Common pulled in just $259,449.
Box office numbers had been treacherous for new works even before the holidays — early closing notices were posted for shows like “Almost Famous,” “KPOP," “A Strange Loop” and “Ain’t No Mo'.” The Broadway stalwart “The Phantom of the Opera” previously announced it would close in 2023 after 35 years. That announcement was met with a ticket spike.
The data is a reminder that Broadway has not fully rebounded from the pandemic, which wiped out live theater for 18 months and dried up its lifeblood — tourism.
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