Julie Taymor & Niece Danya Taymor Direct Nearly 10% Of Broadway’s Total Box Office; ‘The Lion King’ And ‘The Outsiders’ Gross A Combined $3.2M
'The Lion King' and 'The Outsiders' Disney/Matthew Murphy
For those keeping track of such things, nearly 10% – or $3,239,838 – of Broadway‘s total $36.8 million box office last week was earned by productions directed by Taymors: The Lion King‘s Julie Taymor and her niece, The Outsiders director Danya Taymor.
And that’s before The Outsiders‘ big Tony-winning night on Sunday. Two of the musical’s four awards were Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. (Lighting and sound for musicals were the other two.)
As usual, stalwart The Lion King was Broadway’s top earner for the week, grossing $2,216,034. The Outsiders took in $1,023,804. Those numbers tally up to 9% of the Broadway total for the week ending June 16.
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In all, the 35 Broadway productions grossed $36,851,329 for the week, a slight increase of 2% over the previous week but a solid 12% over the same time last year. Total attendance was 293,997, about even with the previous week but up 13% year-to-year.
While the impact of Tony wins on the weekly grosses won’t be clear until next week’s chart (at the earliest), the season’s award nominees generally fared very well in the days leading up to the broadcast. An Enemy of the People, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Hell’s Kitchen, Merrily We Roll Along, Mother Play, Stereophonic and The Outsiders were all sell-outs, with Uncle Vanya and Suffs within a hair’s breadth (Suffs was at 97.2%, Uncle Vanya, which ended its limited run, at 98.5%).
Both Stereophonic and The Outsiders played a seven-show week, canceling the Sunday performances due to the Tonys.
Grossing more than $1 million for the week were Aladdin ($1.4M), An Enemy of the People ($1.3M), Back to the Future ($1.1M), Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club ($1.9M), Hamilton ($1.9M), Hell’s Kitchen ($1.7M), Merrily We Roll Along ($1.8M), MJ ($1.3M), The Great Gatsby ($1.2M), The Outsiders ($1M), The Wiz ($1.4M), Uncle Vanya ($1M), Water For Elephants ($1M) and Wicked ($2M).
In the final weeks of their limited runs, Best Play nominee Mother Play, starring Tony nominees Jessica Lange, Jim Parson and Celia Keenan-Bolger, grossed $718,388, up by $32,738 over the previous week, and Uncle Vanya, starring Steve Carrel in his Broadway debut, jumping $77,670 to $1,088,875.
As Deadline reported yesterday, An Enemy of the People broke its own house record at Circle in the Square, grossing $1,266,338.
The Heart of Rock and Roll, the Huey Lewis jukebox musical that has announced an early closing of June 23, continued its struggle at the box office, filling just 51% of seats at the James Earl Jones Theatre last week and grossing $272,487.
In all, about 90% of available seats on Broadway were filled last week, with an average ticket price of $125.35.
Season to date, Broadway, in the fourth week of the 2024-25 season, has grossed $141,821,231, up 11% over last year at this time, with total attendance at 1,152,578 up 9%.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.