A History of Broadway Grosses

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Broadway grosses are a significant part of how both professionals and the public learn about Broadway on a regular basis. Each week, the Broadway League reports official statistics including how much money each show earned in gross ticket sales, how many theatergoers attended, and how this compares with the previous week. In an industry that is creative and has many variables for judging success, the Broadway grosses are a data set that emphasizes the financial facts of the equation. Anyone can look at the publicly reported numbers and see if a show is struggling to take off in its early days, if a long-runner seems to be winding down, or if a given week of the year is a challenge for multiple productions. On the flip side, one can track a hit becoming a hit, how casting or awards or press have increased income, and even occasions where events outside of Broadway have positively impacted ticket sales. 

The Broadway grosses provide valuable information that can give insight into everything from what producers and investors choose to bring to Broadway next to what show might have a discounted ticket available for the average theatergoer. Historically, this data has been tracked for over a century. The collective data of many shows’ grosses over previous seasons presents patterns which contribute to ticket pricing decisions and scheduling decisions, such as when a limited run should plan to open and close. The grosses guide Broadway marketers and advertisers in every day decision-making as well, giving data to base spends and new placements on. They guide producers and general managers in budgetary determinations. Box office trends guide casting decisions for shows as well; should we bring in a “name” during these months because that’s where the dip in income regularly happens? Grosses provide significant value in giving Broadway decision-makers facts to base their choices on.

The Broadway League, the national trade organization for Broadway, began officially recording and reporting Broadway grosses in 1984. The Internet Broadway Database, an extremely important resource for theatre research, is operated by the Broadway League. This site contains data on grosses for every production that the Broadway League has tracked since 1984, including currently running shows. Site visitors can see all personnel for a given production and information on dates, song lists, awards, and more, right alongside the statistics about the production’s grosses. 

Visiting the Broadway League website itself allows one to see select data on the grosses dating back to 1980. One can examine fascinating statistics; did you know that the 1980-1981 season grossed a total of $197 million? Compare this to our most recent Broadway season, which grossed nearly two billion dollars ($1,911,000). One can see many Broadway seasons in the 1980s and 1990s where attendance hovers at around 7 million theatergoers; compare that with the over 14 million per season in recent years (or the 6.73 million in the season coming out of the pandemic)! (There was a pause in full reporting for that season due to the staggered re-openings of productions and many other factors of irregularity that made the historic season an outlier.) Broadway is inextricably tied to American capitalism and economics; the gravity of inflation, economic crises, and world events are apparent in studying Broadway grosses. 

Prior to the Broadway League tracking this data, Variety was the publication that folks turned to in order to see facts and figures on how Broadway shows were selling. The trade publication Variety has been around since 1905. It began as a newspaper about theatre and vaudeville across America and evolved over the years to encompass reporting about a variety of art forms, including film and television. Variety has a long history of not only reporting theatre grosses, but also tracking film grosses. This reporting now provides a wide lens on the entire evolution of cinema including how it’s consumed and how it generates profit. And Variety was a pioneer as far as in-depth reporting on Broadway and theatre across America, including their financial statistics.

As far as Variety’s theatre grosses reporting, readers for decades could access the statistics of multiple Broadway shows as well as in-depth articles addressing the patterns of Broadway as a business. A May 1922 article in Variety declared “Warm Weather Ends Season; Broadway Grosses Dropping”. The piece went on to report that the week’s Wednesday matinee had poor sales due to it being the first warm day of spring. This indicated that a number of productions would close up shop soon, adhering to the regular tradition of emptying out New York theaters for the hot summer months prior to modern air conditioning. The article postulated that weather forecasts for a cooler summer than usual might affect how many weeks some shows stayed put for. Over a century ago, productions were much smaller entities that could respond quickly to the weekly whims of local New Yorkers who made up the majority of the theatergoing public. The industry was very different because technology, transportation, and media were very different but even then, there were similarities in terms of how grosses affected what was happening on Broadway. Producers and theater owners would consume Variety and plan their productions according to the data provided. 

Looking at Variety’s theatrical grosses reporting during an earlier week in that same season provides a fascinating snapshot about historic Broadway data. In September 1921, Variety examined the Broadway grosses, provided numbers, and also made comments. About the play Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, they wrote “severe panning by critics failed to hurt in any way, with first week’s gross over $17K”. Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting only grossed $7,700; it was postulated that its specific audience had not returned to New York from summer vacations yet. Variety noted the full gross potential of the new Music Box Revue and noted its high top ticket price of $10 on opening night as well as demand from ticket broker agencies (as opposed to official box office) indicating successful future sales. This was the edition of The Irving Berlin-scored revue that introduced the popular song “Say It With Music”. At this point, Variety was addressing the business-minded professionals and public interested in the ups and downs of the legitimate theatre, reporting weekly in detail about the “what” of the grosses and also about the “why”. 

At that point in the early 1920s, Broadway grosses were not reported in the standard format we find them in today. Information was more so incorporated into journalistic reports and written about selectively. By the 1950s, most Broadway gross reports did standardly include the top ticket prices and the total gross for each production in a given week. At this point, gross information still did not appear in a chart that noted several specific data points, but as written listings that did not typically include a report on attendance—only ticket prices and total gross. Often, Variety noted the top ticket price for a given show during the week vs. during the weekend. Reports were given not just for Broadway but for major theatergoing hubs across the country as well as touring houses. Abbreviations were employed to denote when a show was standing room only or when a show used “twofers” (a two-for-one discount). 

By the 1970s, Variety was reporting on house records in the same manner that publications do today. House records— the highest grossing week in history for a given Broadway theater—are largely a function of inflation and constant rising ticket prices. Of course, a Broadway theater cannot increase its capacity, and many productions throughout history have sold out; the variable that changes is how high the ticket price can be based on the market. In September of 1975, Variety announced that two Broadway theaters had set new house records. The original production of Chicago pulled in over $142K at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers). It was the final week where Liza Minnelli stepped in for the role of Roxie due to original star Gwen Verdon’s absence from illness. The Wiz, which had just that spring won the Tony Award for Best Musical, set a new house record at the Majestic, pulling in over $140K. The current house record at the Rodgers is over $4.8 million, set during a 2025 holiday week for Hamilton and the current house record at the Majestic is over $3.7 million, set during the final week of The Phantom of the Opera’s history-making run in 2023. 

By the late 1970s, Variety’s Broadway gross reporting was more standard and purely numbers-based than ever. While articles exploring sales patterns and financial happenings on Broadway did appear separately, the weekly grosses themselves included no commentary. They were strictly a list that included for each currently running production: the official ticket pricing range including weekday and weekend, the full box office potential gross, that week’s gross, the previous week’s gross, that week’s capacity, the previous week’s capacity, and what percentage of tickets were sold for each. This reporting continued through the early 21st century. While Variety has continued to report on the finances of Broadway, recoupment of productions, and patterns in grosses, the regular reporting of the official weekly Broadway grosses is these days in the hands of Broadway League. 

Today, the Broadway League’s weekly gross reporting includes for each production this week’s gross, a comparison with last week’s gross, the average and top ticket prices, the number of seats sold, and the percentage of capacity filled compared with last week’s percentage of capacity filled.

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Check out grosses for all of Broadway's currrently running shows right here at BroadwayWorld.

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