Broadway Box Office: Amy Schumer Bows Big in ‘Meteor Shower’

Amy Schumer made a big-money debut at the Broadway box office last week, playing to capacity crowds in the initial previews of the play in which she stars, “Meteor Shower.”

Schumer’s Broadway bow had already been tipped as one to watch, thanks to a headturning advance of $7.5 million before the show even started performances. For “Meteor Shower,” that translated into a gross of $631,056 for just five previews — which breaks down to more than $125,000 per performance in one of Broadway’s smallest theaters, the 774-seat Booth. That makes for a hefty average price paid per ticket of $162, and bodes well for the limited run of the show — which benefits from the added draw of Steve Martin, who wrote the surreal comedy.

Also adding to the Broadway pot was “Waitress” ($900,167), getting a boost of almost 15% with the addition of pop star Jason Mraz to the cast. But that was one of the few week-to-week rises reported at individual shows last week, as overall sales continued to soften after starting to decline the previous week.

In the Top 10, “Springsteen on Broadway” (holding steady at $2,389,601 for five shows) muscled up to the No. 2 spot as “The Lion King” ($1,645,163) dipped due to its comped 20th anniversary performance Nov. 5, and “Hello, Dolly!” ($879,369) slowed due to a scheduled vacation for headliner Bette Midler (Nov. 1-5).

One show, “War Paint” ($622,410), closed last week (a bit earlier than anticipated), prompting a 10% bump in last-minute sales for the musical that starred Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole. Another show — Ayad Akhtar’s “Junk” ($454,752 for seven, including the comped opening and critics performances) — opened, with previewing “The Band’s Visit” ($866,433) still going strong ahead of its Nov. 9 opening, and John Leguizamo’s “Latin History for Morons” ($394,498 for six previews) on its way to a Nov. 15 bow.

Overall Broadway sales slipped by about $1.4 million for $27.3 million for 28 shows on the boards. Attendance dipped a bit to 224,654, of 86% of the overall capacity.

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