Broadway Holiday Box Office Soars as The Lion King and Mamma Mia! Set New Records

Broadway closed out the holiday season with record breaking performances from long running favourites, as several major productions posted their strongest weekly box office results to date.

The Lion King and Mamma Mia! both set new benchmarks during the final holiday week, capitalising on packed houses and elevated ticket prices across New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

At the Minskoff Theatre, The Lion King grossed $3.14 million across eight performances, surpassing its previous holiday record from 2023. The production also reported a notably high average ticket price of $234, reflecting sustained demand more than two decades into its Broadway run.

Mamma Mia! delivered what producers described as its strongest week ever, bringing in $2.6 million. The figure was achieved across nine performances rather than the standard eight, with an average ticket price of $187, underlining the show’s continued appeal with holiday audiences.

Despite those achievements, Hamilton remained the top grossing show of the week, earning $3.3 million from eight performances. It was closely followed by Wicked, which posted $3.29 million, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which brought in $2.7 million.

Several productions marked the end of their Broadway journeys during the week. Waiting For Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, played its final performance on 4 January at the Hudson Theatre. The production sold out at full capacity and grossed $1.5 million for the week, an increase on recent totals though below its early fall peak.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow continued its strong run, buoyed by interest surrounding the release of the final season of the Netflix series. The play grossed $2 million across seven performances, its second highest weekly total, with attendance exceeding 100 percent capacity and an average ticket price of $177.

Meanwhile, Beetlejuice concluded its Broadway run at the Palace Theatre on a high, earning $1.4 million. This marked the highest weekly gross of its third Broadway engagement, which began in October.

Overall, the final holiday week saw Broadway box office totals dip four percent compared with the previous week, which included Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even so, the results reinforced the resilience of Broadway’s biggest titles and underscored the enduring draw of live theatre during the holiday period.

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