Just In! | Travel News

New York

Broadway box offices recovering from superstorm

 

Associated Press

Most Broadway shows had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving — box offices jumped more than $6 million from the previous week and several records were broken.

The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, released data Monday that showed most shows roared back from a post-Superstorm Sandy listlessness, pulling in $27,019,880 for the week ending Sunday, far better than the $20,881,272 earned during the seven-day period before.

The perennial No. 1 show, Wicked, was the biggest winner, generating the highest eight-performance week in Broadway history. It saw its gross rise $692,343 to finish the week at $2,290,819.

Annie set a house record at the Palace Theatre, grossing $1,499,197 and slipping past the old record held by the revival of West Side Story set in January 2010.

The Book of Mormon continued to top itself, earning a whopping $1,801,627 for the week, the 42nd time it has broken its own house record at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.

Disney also had reason to cheer. Its Newsies broke the record at the Nederlander Theatre with $1,106,383 and The Lion King, which just celebrated its 15th year on Broadway, took in $2,125,561, a house record for an eight-show week at the Minskoff Theatre. The Lion King posted a massive increase of $723,493, more than several shows made all week.

It was all mostly welcome news for producers, who had watched helplessly as Superstorm Sandy closed theaters for several days and eventually cost them $8.5 million. But the latest numbers also show that despite the new gains, Broadway box offices still lag the $28,086,475 earned during Thanksgiving week last season.

Two holiday shows, Elf and a musical based on the holiday movie A Christmas Story, logged nine performances over the week, one more than the average of eight, and both saw revenues jump. Elf scored $997,145 and A Christmas Story took in $1,104,312.

Musicals are always better draws than plays but several plays didn’t see similar increases, despite having star power. The Heiress, starring Jessica Chastain, lost $109,000 over the week; Grace with Paul Rudd pulled in only $320,199, or 34 percent of its potential revenue, and Dead Accounts, the new Katie Holmes’ play which has yet to open, scored only $402,460 from a potential of $1,008,461.

Read more Just In! | Travel News stories from the Miami Herald

  •  

A woman looks up at a statue of Jesus Christ in the San Jose del Talar parish, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    Argentina: Tours of Pope Francis sites in Buenos Aires

    Following the Pope’s footsteps

  • Travel briefs

    Universal Orlando has raised the price of a one-day, single-park ticket to $92.

  •  

In Florid'a's summer months (winter in Antarctica) light in the new penguin habitat at SeaWorld Orlando is kept dim to mimic the cycle of daylight in the birds' native land.-

    Orlando theme parks

    SeaWorld introduces Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin

    SeaWorld Orlando’s new Empire of the Penguin, which has its grand opening Friday, is a fun family ride that tilts and twirls gently through an artist’s impressionistic re-creation of Antarctica and ends up in an icy penguin habitat where a visitor could easily watch the antics of the real thing for hours -- if only it weren’t a bone-chilling 30 degrees.

Miami Herald

Join the
Discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

The Miami Herald uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here.

Have a news tip? You can send it anonymously. Click here to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Hide Comments

This affects comments on all stories.

Cancel OK

  • Videos



  • Quick Job Search

Enter Keyword(s) Enter City Select a State Select a Category