Attendance figures for New York City’s Broadway theaters rose about 45% this past season compared to the year before, indicating a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to numbers released Tuesday.
For the 2022-23 season, Broadway attendance reached 12.28 million, according to the Broadway League, a trade association for the theater industry. The season, which ran from May 2022 to April 2023, marked the first full season since Broadway returned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those numbers were a significant increase from the shortened 2021-22 season, which saw attendance reach 6.73 million, the Broadway League reported.
Broadway was shuttered by the pandemic for about a year-and-a-half, from March of 2020 to September of 2021.
The 2022-23 season saw Broadway gross $1.578 billion in box office revenue, up from $845 million the year before, per the Broadway League.
88.4% of seats were filled for the 11,506 performances of the 2022-23 season, the Broadway League added.
“Broadway is making a strong rebound as audiences are returning to New York City to experience extraordinary live theatre,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League, in a statement.
For comparison, in 2018-19, attendance hit 14.77 million and the box office gross totaled $1.829 billion, both Broadway records.
Broadway had 40 new shows open last season, along with 35 returning productions. Of those new shows, 15 were musicals and 24 were plays, according to the Broadway League. Last month, “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest running show in Broadway history, held its final performance. The show had been on Broadway since January of 1988.
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