Broadway Grosses: Shattered Records Galore! The Great White Way Ends 2014 on a High, Belted Note
It was a stellar week to end a stellar year on the Great White Way. 2014 marked the best attended and highest-grossing calendar year for Broadway, as 13.13 million theatergoers brought in $1.362 billion. The past two weeks marked the highest-grossing and attended Christmas and New Year’s weeks in history. For the week ending January 4, 19 shows hit seven figures, including the 2014 Tony winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (bringing in $1,011,822). The tuner first joined the millionaires club the week before. Other hits to celebrate milestones included Wicked, which set an industry record for the highest-grossing eight-performance week with $2,740,642, as well as The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, The Elephant Man and The Lion King, which all broke their respective venue’s house record. For the second consecutive year, The Lion King took top honors as the highest-grossing show of the year. Meanwhile, the Keke Palmer and NeNe Leakes-led Cinderella bid farewell to the Broadway ball on January 3, but not before seeing its highest-grossing week of its almost two-year run. Additional shows to take final bows over the holiday week were Once, Pippin, Side Show, This Is Our Youth and The Real Thing.
Here’s a look at who was on top—and who was not—for the week ending January 4:
FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)
1. Wicked ($2,740,642)
2. The Lion King ($2,514,994)
3. The Book of Mormon ($2,224,280)***
4. The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible ($2,217,405)**
5. Cinderella ($1,873,246)***
UNDERDOGS (By Gross)
5. This Is Our Youth ($569,187)***
4. Constellations ($478,445)*
3. The Real Thing ($462,361)****
2. Honeymoon in Vegas ($409,674)*
1. Disgraced ($386,752)
FRONTRUNNERS (By Capacity)
1. The Elephant Man (102.78%)
2. The Book of Mormon (102.63%)***
3. The River (101.99%)
4. Once (101.61%)
5. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (101.03%)
UNDERDOGS (By Capacity)
5. Honeymoon in Vegas (82.72%)*
4. Disgraced (78.12%)
3. You Can't Take It With You (77.83%)
2. On the Town (74.75%)
1. The Temptations and the Four Tops (74.70%)****
*Number based on eight preview performances
**Number based on twelve regular performances
***Number based on nine regular performances
****Number based on seven special performances
Source: The Broadway League