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Season sets $ record, but attendance stalls and flops abound
Broadway has another big number to ballyhoo this year, as total grosses for the season, which concluded May 30, hit a new record of $771,012,298. But that gleaming figure more or less constitutes the whole of the good news. In most other respects, Broadway had a mediocre, even substandard year.
The numbers are particularly tricky this year, since the 2003-04 season marked one of Broadway's extra-credit seasons, with 53 weeks of grosses rather than the usual 52. Still, even without that additional week, the total B.O. for Broadway would be slightly ahead of last year. As it is, the total gross rose by 6.9% this year, a respectable figure.
The attendance figures aren't quite as upbeat, however. With Week 53 included, the numbers rose a minor 1.85% from last season to 11,600,203. Subtract that last week and the numbers are dead even with the prior year - actually down about 35,000 ducats, or a minuscule 0.3%.
Combined with the strong road figures for the season (see story below), the Broadway and road grosses totaled a record $1,522,277,733, a healthy 11.2% increase.
The discrepancy between the record dollars being collected and the static ticket-sales figure is becoming a familiar story. The explanation is simple: higher prices. The average price for a Broadway show rose again this year, hitting a new high of $66.47. It wasn't the leap of nearly $5 registered last season, but it's still a rise of $3.20, or 5%.
Look past the overall totals to the numbers pertaining to individual shows, and the picture darkens considerably. While flops always outnumber hits on Broadway - particularly when the accounting is taken at the end of May, when spring shows are new to the boards - this year's winners-and-losers tally looks even more lopsided than usual.
Just two shows that opened during the 2003-04 season had returned all their money to investors by the finish line: the small-scaled, star-less musical "Avenue Q," capitalized at $6 million, and the revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," which turned a profit (despite dreary reviews) thanks to the marquee allure of Ashley Judd and Jason Patric. Not since the 1997-98 season have there been just two...