Earnings in Broadway have nearly doubled in the past decade and tripled in the last 20 years. INQUIRER.net stock photo
Broadway shows in New York had a record-breaking 2018-2019 season, the theater district said Wednesday, May 29, both in attendance and revenues which have doubled in the last 10 years.
Some 14.7 million people spent $1.82 billion (almost P95 billion) on tickets to see 38 different shows with revenue up 7.8% from the year before. Earnings have nearly doubled in the past decade and tripled in the last 20 years.
A statement from The Broadway League noted that the comparison between 2018-2019 and 2017-2018 has gotten even better when correcting for the fact the 2017-2018 season was 53 weeks instead of 52, attendance would have been up 9.5% and revenues up 10.3%.
Despite lacking hits as big as 2015-2016’s “Hamilton”, 2016-2017’s “Dear Evan Hansen” or 2017-2018’s “The Band’s Visit”, several shows such as “Tootsie” and “The Prom” have still done well.
And the much-anticipated adaptation of Harper Lee’s iconic anti-racism novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” was the breakout of the season.
After a jump last year, overall ticket prices remained fairly stable, with an average cost of $123.87 (about P6,400), a 0.6% increase.
But this stability masks a strong disparity between the price of tickets for musicals which were down by 2.3% and the price of tickets for plays which saw a sharp rise of 30%.
That was partly due to the effect of tickets for “To Kill a Mockingbird” which in some cases sold for as much as $499 (about P26,000). HM/NVG
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