Broadway had a strong holiday season even without the tens of thousands of theatergoers who descended on the Gershwin Theatre. But if it weren’t for “Wicked,” we couldn’t be so blunt: Broadway just had its best week in six years.
The Tony-winning musical ushered in the new year by becoming the first Broadway show to ever bring in more than $5 million in a single week. The Broadway League said attendance at the theater for the seven-day period ending Dec. 29. topped 17,000 — it rarely exceeds 15,500 — and the average “Wicked” ticket sold for $291, about $110 more than the average price for all 33 active shows.
The record-breaking $5,037,392 for “Wicked” contributed to what Crain’s has confirmed was the second-highest grossing week in Broadway history. Totaling $55.8 million, this holiday week trailed just that of 2018, when ticket sales for the week ending Dec. 30 topped $57.8 million.
The superlatives are more attributable to high ticket prices than the number of guests in seats. Attendance figures were strong to end the year but did not break any records. Just over 306,000 theatergoers attended shows during the last full week of December. That’s up from the same time in 2023 but far from an outlier, even trailing some recent non-holiday weeks.
Broadway League president Jason Laks cautioned that while the holiday period showed signs of health for the long-ailing Great White Way, the industry is still hurting as a whole. “We’re still coming back from Covid,” he said. “It feels like Broadway is really moving in the right direction. We’re on an upward trajectory and I feel great about it. But we’re still not back to where we were prepandemic year-over-year.”
His focus is less on one week or show but rather the year and future as a whole. “‘Wicked’ had an incredible week, there’s no doubt about it. It was a great week for them,” he said. “But I think the story of our season is the number of different shows that are having that level of success.”
Laks pointed to “Hell’s Kitchen” and “The Outsiders” as shows that debuted to much fanfare this year, each bringing in roughly $2 million during the peak week. “We have an incredible number of shows right now and a huge variety. There really is something for everyone to come see.”
Predictably, grosses and attendance levels retreated during the first week of January to $45 million and 291,000. For “Wicked,” those figures fell to $3.3 million and 15,400. It was still by far the highest-grossing show.
But attendance will likely pick up at the end of the month during Broadway Week, a biannual event during which 2-for-1 tickets are available for select shows. Broadway Week runs from Jan. 21 through Feb. 9.
