Broadway Grosses $1.14 Billion in 2012-13 Season; Hurricane Sandy Impacted Sales

Despite a 2012-13 season full of hit musicals like Matilda and Kinky Boots and big-name stars like Tom Hanks, attendance is down on Broadway, according to the end-of-season statistics released by the Broadway League. 11.6 million people saw a Broadway show during the 2012-13 season, down 6% from last year. Broadway grossed $1.14 billion in ticket sales, down 1% from the 2011-12 season.

“Each season has unique factors that contribute to the overall story,” Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, said in a statement. “In the fall, our grosses and attendance numbers were above last fall’s numbers until Hurricane Sandy devastated our region. The lost performances and the understandable slower return to Broadway by our Tri-State area theatregoers contributed to the decline in both grosses and attendance. Plus with early closings of some of our open-ended runs creating a loss in playing weeks, comparable to the decrease in attendance, there just wasn’t time to recover. While this is the first year in many that we have seen such a decline, we are pleased to report that the new season is filled with many exciting new shows and we anticipate that the numbers will return to previous season highs.”

This season saw the openings of 46 new shows and two return engagements. Of the 46 new productions, 26 were plays—the most ever produced in one season. The previous record was set in the 2010-11 season, with 25 plays.