Powered by the thrust engines of a rocket known as “Hamilton,” Broadway ended the current season on an all-time high in attendance and ticket sales. According to figures released by the Broadway League on May 23, more than thirteen million people poured into theaters over the past twelve months, up 1.6 percent over last year’s record-breaking season. In the process, ticket-buyers, the majority of whom were tourists, dropped $1.373 billion, also a slight increase over the tally of the previous season.The season that ended on Sunday included 13,317,980 visitors to Broadway shows — another record number. The increase in both grosses and the proverbial “asses in seats” were, as usual, attributed to musicals that by far dominated the scene. Of the seventy-two productions that comprised the entire season, 41 were musicals, 28 were plays, and three were special events, such as “Penn & Teller on Broadway.” The reigning box-office king was not “Hamilton,” as you might expect, but “The Lion King,” which grossed a total of $102.7 million. That stunning figure adds to the $6.2 billion of its global box-office take since it opened on Broadway in 1997. It is by far the most successful entertainment enterprise in history. The total gross of “The Lion King” makes the $2.8 billion earned by “Avatar,” the highest-grossing film of all time, seem paltry. Disney’s “Aladdin” has also been a top grosser since it opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre in 2014.Those lucrative figures are why Broadway has been attracting high-roller investors and film companies eager to turn their catalogue into potential stage moneymakers. “Waitress,” “Tuck Everlasting,” and “American Psycho” were just a few of the latest film-to-stage adaptations, but they also hold a cautionary tale insofar as failure on Broadway is still more likely than success. While “Waitress” has been a sturdy earner at the box-office, “American Psycho” is struggling and “Tuck Everlasting” has announced it will close on May 29 at a total loss.Plays have always been the stepchild of Broadway, and this season was no exception. The highest grosser in that regard was “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” last year’s Tony Award winner for Best Play, which pulled in nearly $33 million. Proving the appeal of star power, the next two top-earning plays were the critically panned David Mamet drama, “China Doll,” starring Al Pacino, and “Misery,” adapted from the Stephen King novel and starring Bruce Willis.The only dip in this season’s figures came from the average ticket price, which went from $104.18 to $103.11. That is likely to change if rumors prove true that the producers of “Hamilton,” after an expected sweep at the Tony Awards, intend to change the price of its premium tickets to $995. The blockbuster’s average ticket price for the week ending May 22 was $164.09, just slightly higher than $158.79 for “The Book of Mormon” and the $151.66 for “The Lion King.” As feverish as the excitement may be around “Hamilton” currently, the musical of the Founding Father has a long way to equal the sustained power of such mega-hits as “Phantom of the Opera,” “The Lion King,” “The Book of Mormon,” and “Wicked.” But its expansive cultural profile is bringing healthy attention to Broadway that heretofore had long been considered a niche art form.
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