After a turbulent autumn at the box office, Broadway managed to end the year with its traditional big-bucks performance.
With several offices closed Dec. 31, only 13 of the 28 shows last week reported B.O. figures to
Daily Variety; the other 15 are due today. The lucky 13, however, presented an average 48.9% bounce over their tallies from the previous session.
If that spectacular increase holds for the other 14 productions -- the 15th show, "Barbara Cook Mostly Sondheim" at the Vivian Beaumont, played its first perf on Dec. 30 -- receipts look to top $17 million for Christmas week. It would be a record for the year. During the April 9-15 session, 36 shows brought in $16,068,527, the previous high for 2001.
2000 tops
If the $17 million figure holds, it would not be an all-time high for Broadway. In 2000, Christmas week produced a far loftier $19,473,568, which is unlikely to be surpassed. In 1999, when the holidays fell on the weekend, receipts were more evenly split between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve weeks, with respective cumes limited to $14 million and $14.9 million.
At least six shows registered their best B.O. numbers to date last week: "By Jeeves" ($246,620), "42nd Street" ($1,233,693), "Mamma Mia" ($962,801), "Sexaholix" ($380,562), "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" ($427,166) and "Urinetown" ($442,338).
"Urinetown" and "42nd Street" had the advantage of doing nine instead of their usual eight perfs. Not that there was any problem filling those seats: Each show did more than 99% capacity. More spectacular, John Leguizamo's "Sexaholix" dropped to a six-perf sked but still managed its hottest figures to date.
Lighter fare rises
No surprise, theatergoers preferred comedy to tragedy for the holiday week. "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" jumped a whopping 74.1% over the previous session, while "Dance of Death" rose 52.3% to finish with $326,783 and "Hedda Gabler" climbed 31.3% to achieve its $217,131 total. But to give the Strindberg its due, "Dance" did just seven perfs while "Hedda" managed nine.
The long-running musicals came up winners, with "Chicago" up 100.5%, "Les Miserables" up 84.9% and "The Phantom of the Opera" up 65.4% from the previous week. Thanks to an added perf, the Kander & Ebb actually grossed more last week ($864,162) than at this time a year ago, when it brought in $749,262.
The Big Mack tuners were off about $50,000 from their Christmas 2000 figures. Last week, "Phantom" made $937,392; "Les Miz" took in $764,953.
"Thou Shalt Not," up 48%, and "The Rocky Horror Show," up 24.5%, grossed $260,228 and $279,803, respectively.
Contact Robert Hofler at
bob.hofler@variety.com