A 'Wicked' good holiday session

'Wicked' came near to the $two million mark that Broadway usually accomplishes only on major holidays for example Thanksgiving. Broadway perked up for Presidents Day, using the lengthy weekend's spike in tourist traffic pushing B.O. up by almost 30% in Week 38 (February. 13-19) in comparison using the prior frame.Also contributing to the pot were two new choices, including "Dying of the Salesperson" ($613,569 for six previews), the Philip Seymour Hoffman starrer that drawn in solid amounts for any first week and performed to auds that contacted 90% of capacity. The brief run of solo outing "Shatner's World: We Simply Reside in It" ($305,705 for six) performed two previews and four regular perfs, including opening. Aside from "It of Mormon" ($1,473,606), which held steady, every production around the boards reported gains, most of them significant.The heftiest slice of change, obviously, was drawn in at the very top-ticket hits, including "Wicked" ($1,903,024), "Spider-Guy: Switch Off the Dark" ($1,709,139) and "The Lion King" ($1,665,141), which rose by a lot more than $300,000 each. Buoyed simply through the growing prevalence of premium prices in addition to Broadway's consistently rising ticket prices overall, "Wicked" came within spitting distance from the $two million mark, an achievement that the couple of years back, was once restricted to B.O.-busting major holidays for example Thanksgiving.Overall Rialto cume rose $4.4 million to $20.a million for that 26 shows around the boards. Attendance was up by 35,000 to just about 210,000, or about 85% of overall capacity.The 17 musicals made $16,138,494 for 80.4% from the Broadway total, with attendance of 162,575 as well as an average compensated admission of $99.27.The nine plays made $3,932,703 for 19.6% from the Broadway total, with attendance of 47,366 as well as an average compensated admission of $83.03. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com