This past year turned out to be very successful for the theatres of the Great White Way with the final week of the year setting a number of records.

Recent weeks have seen a few of the productions on Broadway shut their doors due to lack of audience attendance including the longest running musical in the history of Broadway “The Phantom of the Opera” which is set to close in April after an extension was recently announced.

In the last week of 2022, 21 of the 33 productions currently running broke the million dollar mark in ticket sales.  In previous weeks, “The Music Man” starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster has been topping the chart on attendance, but in the final week of the year, it was an award winning lion celebrating 25 years that blew everyone else away. 

Setting a new record, “The Lion King” brought in a whopping $4, 315,264 over a week with nine performances.  The show beat out “Hamilton” for the highest grossing week in Broadway history.  “Hamilton” topped the $4 million mark in 2018 in an eight show week.

“The Music Man” came in second just under $4 million with “Wicked” taking third place with over $3 million and 100 percent capacity.  “Aladdin” and “Phantom of the Opera” rounded out the top five shows for the week.  “Funny Girl” broke the $2 million mark for the first time last week as well.  “Aladdin”, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, “Chicago”, “SIX: the Musical”, “& Juliet”, and “Beetlejuice” also set records for the week.

But with ticket prices averaging over $280 each, it is no wonder a number of records have been set.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the popular holiday production of “A Christmas Carol” failed to see any boost in attendance.  “Between Riverside and Crazy” starring award winning rap star Common brought in only $260,085.  Playing to half filled theaters, “Topdog/Underdog,”  brought in just $345,567 and “Ohio State Murders” took in only $311,893.

Overall, in total the 33 Broadway productions grossed $51,92,862 – a number not seen since before the pandemic closed down Broadway for 18 months.

Ticket sales weren’t the only records set last week; with a audience capacity of 92.3 percent, 312,878 people saw one of the 33 Broadway productions.

the 21 of 33 shows that were a part of the Million Dollar Club last week for grossing at least $1 million are:
“The Lion King”
“The Music Man”
“Wicked”
“Aladdin”
“Phantom of the Opera”
“Hamilton”
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”
“Beetlejuice”
“Funny Girl”
“MJ The Musical”
“Moulin Rouge!”
“Into the Woods”
“The Book of Mormon”
“SIX: The Musical”
“& Juliet”
“A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical”
“Chicago”
“Hadestown”
“Some Like it Hot”
“The Piano Lesson”
“Almost Famous”

“The Book of Mormon”, “The Phantom of the Opera”
“Hamilton”, “Chicago”, “The Music Man” and “Hadestown” all topped 101 percent in capacity for the week with “Beetlejuice”, “MJ The Musical”, “SIX: The Musical”, “& Juliet”, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, and “Wicked” were all at 100 percent capacity for the week.