The Stage

Profits on Broadway steady as tourist levels increase

Published Thursday 9 June 2005 at 14:45

Broadway took in a total of $768,553,418 at the box office during the just-completed 2004-2005 theatre season, the second highest total in its history, with a paid attendance of 11,527,349 million.

The year-end figures were released on June 1 by the League of American Theatres and Producers, the national trade organisation for the industry. Neither of these totals were record-breakers, with the all-time highest grosses being 2003-2004’s 771 million. Total attendance for 2004-2005 came fourth on the all-time list - Broadway’s highest-paid attendance occurred during 2000-2001, with 11.89 million.

However, an LATP press release stated this season’s totals were “virtually flat from last year”, according to a League, taking into account the 53rd week from the last season’s playing schedule. Total grosses and paid attendance for the first 52 weeks in 2003-2004 were, respectively, $755.3 million and 11.36 million.

There were, however, many bright spots in the year-end totals, as LATP president Jed Bernstein noted in a statement accompanying the release.

“The season was marked by incredibly strong performances by big-name celebrities, as well as Broadway stalwart talent, a host of new plays and musicals and some wonderful revivals of classic works. Not only did the season come in the second highest in grosses and the fourth highest in paid attendance but plays had one of their best years ever. Broadway has many reasons to celebrate,” he wrote.

Broadway did indeed show improvement this past year when it came to average weekly grosses, which increased from $14.5 million to $14.8 million (up 1.6%) over the previous year. Additionally, total playing weeks in 2004-2005 rose to 1,494, up from 1,451 in 2003-2004 even with the 53-week schedule. This represented a jump of 3%.

Breaking the 2004-2005 figures down into specific categories, musicals took in $648,102,341, plays $119,885,667 and shows classified as ‘special events’ earned $565,411. While the musical total represented a drop of $35,534,142, from the year before, the box office grosses for plays increased by $32,984,813.

During 2004-2005 39 shows opened on Broadway, the same as the year before. Although not since the 1982-1983 season have there been more Tony-eligible productions. Of the 39, 15 were musicals (11 new, four revivals), 23 were plays (14 new, nine revivals) and one was classified as a special event.

The total average paid admission to a Broadway show rose from $66.43 last year to $66.67, although the average price paid for a musical dropped from $68.21 to $67.92. The average admission for plays rose from $55.27 in 2003-2004 to $60.79 in 2004-2005.

Broadway made its greatet profit during the final 13 weeks of the season, taking in $222.1 million, making this its most profitable spring in history. Paid attendance for this period was 3.34 million, giving it increases of 10% (from $201.9 million), and 6.8% (from 3.13 million), from the same period the year before.

Finally, in one of the most-watched Broadway categories, the LATP reported that domestic visitors to Broadway reached a record high of 5.8 million (49.7% of the total audience) for the 2003-2004 season. Figures for 2004-2005 are not yet available. International tourism is also up 1.2 million (11% of the total audience). This area has now risen to pre 9/11 levels.

Some of the celebrities who appeared on Broadway this year included Alan Alda, Christina Applegate, Hank Azaria, Tim Curry, Billy Crystal, Dame Edna Everage, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Goulet, James Earl Jones, Jeff Goldblum, David Hyde Pierce, Nathan Lane, Jessica Lange, John Lithgow, Natasha Richardson, Christian Slater, Kathleen Turner and Denzel Washington.