By: calexan

calexan — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 05:14:36 +0000

Jersey Boys is the 4th highest grossing show on Broadway. That’s impressive, but we know that ranking understates JB’s box-office power because our guys trail three plays in much bigger theaters. So I use a measure that does not seem to be published but can be calculated from the figures on broadwayworld.com: revenue per seat (RPS). This is not the same as average ticket price, since refusing to discount doesn’t help if you only fill 50% of your seats. RPS is the week’s gross divided by the total number of seats available at the theater (both sold and unsold). By that measure, last week was significant for JB. It moved past Wicked for the first time (JB passed Spamalot earlier and left Lion King in the dust a long time ago). Last week JB took in $90.53 per seat, vs. $90.10 for Wicked. (And think where JB would be if it didn’t have to discount the last three rows of the orchestra because of the obstructed view of the projections.) So, is JB at the top of the RPS heap? Well, no. That honor belongs to the sold-out-in-advance Odd Couple, which plays in an even smaller theater and pulled in $96.96 per seat. The Odd Couple will close in a few months, but Julia Roberts is coming to town, so I won’t venture any predictions on when JB will claim the RPS crown. All I know is that the Boys are already beating the witches, errant knights and kings of the jungle. Cheers, Charles

Comments on: Jersey Boys–Number Four at the Box Office for a Second Consecutive Week

By: calexan