Broadway Box Office: ‘Chess’ Gets Strong $1.2 Million Start

Broadway Box Office: ‘Chess’ Gets Strong $1.2 Million Start

Chess brought in a strong $1.2 million across its first four preview performances. The revival of the 1980s cold war musical, starring Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, began previews Oct. 15 and played to 100 percent capacity at the Imperial Theatre. The average ticket price for the musical was $208, the fourth highest…

Chess brought in a strong $1.2 million across its first four preview performances.

The revival of the 1980s cold war musical, starring Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, began previews Oct. 15 and played to 100 percent capacity at the Imperial Theatre. The average ticket price for the musical was $208, the fourth highest in the industry last week. The show is scheduled to open Nov. 16.

Hamilton’s gross fell close to $300,000 from the prior week (when the show hit its highest gross ever of more than $4 million) but the musical still brought in a massive $3.8 million with Leslie Odom Jr. in the cast, ranking as the highest grossing show on Broadway last week. The musical had the highest average ticket price at $350.

Among the new shows on Broadway, Little Bear Ridge Road, produced by Scott Rudin and starring Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, saw its grosses dip slightly to $362,644 across its second week of previews and capacity at the Booth Theatre fell to 78 percent from 83 percent the prior week.

New musical The Queen of Versailles, starring Kristin Chenoweth, saw its capacity fall to 91 percent in its second week of previews. Grosses jumped up to close to $900,000, from $775,752 the prior week, as the musical played its first week of six shows (as compared to four the prior week).

The revival of Ragtime opened at the Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on Oct. 16 to largely positive reviews. As a result of the mostly comped opening night, grosses fell about $70,000 to $1 million, while capacity remained at 100 percent.

Wicked was the second highest-grossing show on Broadway last week, bringing in $2.3 million, followed by The Lion King, which brought in $2 million, Waiting For Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, which brought in $1.8 million. Art, starring James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale, brought in $1.79 million across nine shows last week, rather than the typical eight.