Broadway biz boosted in '08
Attendance hits a record 12.32 million
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Ditto attendance, which squeaked out a record of 12.32 million.
The best-ever tallies, released in a year-end report issued by the Broadway League, come with several caveats attached. Still, such high numbers have an encouraging ring in an industry dominated by worries about the impending impact of the economic downturn.
The year’s top earners were, unsurprisingly, largely the same group of overachievers that dominate the Street’s weekly top 10. “Wicked” led the way with about $77 million for the year, followed by “The Lion King” ($62 million), “Jersey Boys” ($60 million), “The Little Mermaid” ($50 million) and, getting a nice boost from the year’s hit movie version, “Mamma Mia!” ($49 million).
Compared with last year, the $941 million total box office recorded in 2008 was just about on par with the $938 million logged in 2007. The 12.32 million attendance was also just slightly higher than the prior annum’s total, which came in at 12.29 million. (Figures do not include numbers from "Young Frankenstein," which did not report grosses or attendance.)
But 2007 sales were hobbled by the 19-day stagehands strike that darkened the majority of Rialto shows during a couple of the Street’s most profitable frames, including Thanksgiving week. So while biz in 2008 did remain steady, it kept pace with handicapped sums.
On the other hand, the League, the trade association of legit producers and presenters, lumped 53 weeks into 2007 as opposed to 52 for 2008. (For bookkeeping purposes, every seventh year gets an extra week to accommodate the 365th day of each of those seven years.)
By the yardstick of playing weeks, or the cumulative tally of the number of weeks played by each of the Rialto’s individual offerings, Broadway made a major jump from 1,552 in 2007 to 1,653, another record.
That spike indicates that 2008 was a busy year, at least on the production side (although some of that leap can be attributed to the return of the weeks that were darkened in 2007). But attendance did not also rise dramatically, putting auds at 75.6% of capacity for 2008, vs. the 80.9% of seats filled in 2007.
While the timing of the year-end report may lift some spirits among legiters concerned about the challenging economy, it’s worth noting that the global downturn only really became headline news late in the annum.
And the Rialto faces its roughest patch in the year ahead, as economic turbulence looks poised to impact both producers and ticketbuyers alike. This month, the usual post-holiday slowdown has been exacerbated by the fiscal climate, with nine productions shuttering last week and more to come in the days ahead.
