The Lion King and Mamma Mia! both broke box office records as Broadway celebrated the last week of the lucrative holiday season.
The Lion King brought in $3.14 million across eight performances at the Minskoff Theatre, besting its 2023 holiday record, with an average ticket price of $234. Mamma Mia brought in $2.6 million, albeit across nine performances, rather than the typical eight, in what the production called its “best week ever.” The average ticket price of $187.
Still, Hamilton was the top-grossing show of the week, with $3.3 million across eight performances, followed by Wicked with $3.29 million and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with $2.7 million. The Lion King was the fourth highest grossing, followed by Mamma Mia!
Waiting For Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, played its final performance Jan. 4 to 100 percent capacity at the Hudson Theatre and a box office tally of $1.5 million (higher than the preceding weeks but lower than its early fall highs).
Stranger Things: The First Shadow continues to see box office highs amid the release of the final season of the Netflix series. While down from its nine-show week the prior week, the play still brought in its second highest gross of $2 million, and that was across just seven performances. Attendance dropped was above 100 percent, with an average ticket price of $177.
Beetlejuice also ended its Broadway run on a high of $1.4 million at the Palace Theatre, the highest box office tally the show has brought in during its third Broadway run, which began in October.
Overall, this holiday week, which encompassed New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, was down 4 percent from the highs of the prior week, containing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.