Here's a ritual most theater fans don't know about: every Monday, the Broadway League releases the previous week's box-office figures for nearly every show running. These are the grosses — and they're the closest thing Broadway has to a public scoreboard. We archive every week of them, going back years, over on Weekly Grosses.
The four numbers that matter
Each show's line gives you a few key stats. Here's how to read them without an MBA:
- Weekly gross — the total money the show took in that week. A mega-hit like Hamilton can pull in well over $2,000,000.00 in a single week; in a blockbuster holiday week the very biggest shows have topped $3,500,000.00. A modest play might do $450,000.00.
- Capacity (a.k.a. "how full") — the percentage of available seats that were filled. Anything near 100% means a packed house. You'll even see numbers slightly above 100% — that's standing-room and extra seats counting in.
- Average ticket — gross divided by attendance. This is the real "what did people pay" number, and it quietly reveals a show's pricing power. A red-hot show might average $160.00; one papering the house to stay full might be down near $70.00.
- Performances — usually eight a week. Fewer means a dark day or a show in previews; more is rare.
Why grosses tell a story
Numbers in isolation are boring; the movement is where the drama lives. A show whose gross is sliding for six straight weeks is often weeks away from posting a closing notice. A surprise jump might mean a star joined the cast, a show won a big award, or a holiday filled the house. We turn those swings into plain-English stories every week in the Broadway Briefing on our homepage.
A few things grosses don't tell you
Grosses are revenue, not profit. A show grossing $1,000,000.00 a week might still be losing money if it's expensive to run — which is the whole drama of whether a show "recoups." Grosses also can't see how a show filled its seats — full price or deep discounts — though our TKTS price history helps fill in that blank.
Want to go deeper on what moves these numbers — weather, holidays, the season? That's exactly what Broadway Trends is for.