Ben Waterhouse

Social media’s role on Broadway has been increasing over the last couple of years. Shows like The Great Gatsby and Maybe Happy Ending have been able to ride social media virality to either help overcome early struggles, or outperform expectations based on critical and awards reception.

Original musicals cost more money to mount on Broadway, and cost more to run than they ever have before. Still to this date the only musicals to recoup their capitalization after opening post-pandemic are Six, MJ: The Musical, and &Juliet. All of this is very well documented, but what really matters is can ticket sales sustain those higher costs? 

many shows struggled this summer, particularly long running shows that tend to do well with international tourists. International tourists in previous seasons have made up about 21% of Broadway ticket buyers, but that number is poised to decrease this year.

Three months ago, The Broadway League, the consortium of Broadway investors, producers, and theatre owners, announced that Broadway had broken the single season gross record set in the 2018-2019 season. The five weeks that followed seemed to be a continuation of that trend, with the first five weeks of the 2025-2026 season marking the best start of a season in Broadway history. But things have changed since then. Starting on the week ending July 6, 2025, Broadway grosses have stagnated, and have not returned to the highs of the spring and early summer. 

Recasting a star who is above the title of a musical is a tricky endeavor. That balance of someone who artistically fulfills the role and someone who can sell enough tickets to be worthy of the above-the-title placement is a complex one, and it seems to becoming a more and more common trend recently for shows, particularly star-driven revivals, to not do a second casting, even if they are financially successful.

It was another very strong month for Broadway, with three of the four weeks exceeding $40 million in total gross. This has been the strongest start to the Broadway season gross wise through the first four weeks. However, that pattern is unlikely to continue as many limited runs came to an end this month, as well as shows closing earlier than expected due to low sale.

The past month represented the strongest May grosses in Broadway history, with each week being well over the $40 million mark for the second month in a row. These grosses were high enough to make the 2024-2025 Broadway season the highest grossing season in history, beating the 2018-2019 season.

The past month represented the strongest April grosses in Broadway history, with each week being well over the $40 million mark, and Easter week peaking at over $50 million. Several shows opened, bringing the total number conncurrently running shows on Broadway to 40, the highest mark since 2018. As ever, some of those 40 are doing much better than others. 

Broadway’s grosses in March were a story of two halves. The first week of the month was the lowest grossing week of the year so far. Last week (ending March 23) was the second highest of the year. Total gross was up to $134 million from $119 in February, and attendance was up to over 1 million. 

February is typically one of the slowest months of the year for Broadway. The first two weeks were included in this year’s Broadway Week discounts, where even the longer running shows that do not typically sell discounted tickets run some special deals. In spite of the cold weather this season was a significant improvement from last year, with the total gross as a whole being up well over 20% for the month compared to February 2024. 

Luckily, there is a limit to how many musicians that can be cut for a Broadway show on the main stem, in the form of musician minimums. These minimums range as high as 19 for the Broadway, Lyric, Minskoff, Marquis, New Amsterdam, and St James Theatres, to as low as three for Circle in the Square, Booth, Belsaco, Ambassador, Golden, Lyceum, Jones, and Kerr Theatres.

If you were to ask practically every current Broadway producer, they would tell you that initial capitalization costs (that is the cost of a show to open on Broadway before a single ticket is sold) are way out of control. There are many explanations for these increases...

It’s no secret that the current commercial landscape of Broadway is making it more and more difficult for new shows to become successful. Between skyrocketing development and operating costs, and stagnate average ticket prices, rarely has there been a more challenging time for new shows.