Strike Coverage: Broadway Box Offices Struck by Strike

With the stagehands' strike beginning Saturday morning - nearly erasing all weekend performances for last week - box office grosses are one-third lower than the last report, states Variety.

"Estimates are rough - particularly for shows with low advance sales, plus all those limited-run plays that recently began performances - but it's not quite the catastrophe that will be felt if the strike continues and wipes out all the coming week's shows," the article states.

Cyrano de Bergerac at $518,554 maintained the healthiest position, holding 78% of the prior week's attendance.  The Farnsworth Invention dropped $40,000 with six shows.

Disney's The Little Mermaid only played three shows last week before the strike, thus raising $375,925.

BroadwayWorld.com reports weekly Broadway Box Office grosses here

Musicals not affected by the strike, like Mary Poppins, Xanadu and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - are seeing a significant increase in sales, some up 40-50%.

With no end to the strike in-sight, The League has postponed its upcoming national conference.  It is difficult to speculate what other fiscal effects may come in next weeks' totals - at this point, some Broadway tuners like Rent and Chicago (with scheduled Monday performances) have missed five shows.

Only able to acquire half (or less) than the last totals, other productions' grosses include: The Lion King ($507,570), Mamma Mia! ($413,926), The Color Purple ($345,244), Spring Awakening ($288,368) and Monty Python's Spamalot ($271,308).

Hardest hit - some dropping below the $200,000 mark - are musicals The Drowsy Chaperone ($190,529), A Chorus Line ($187,879), Les Miserables ($183,853), Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas ($163,298), Avenue Q ($156,342) and Rent ($116,317).  Straight-plays are struggling, like A Bronx Tale pulling in a mere $142,169.