Sunday, January 11, 2009
Broadway grosses rose in 2008
The Stage: "Broadway shows grossed $940,871,190 for the 2008 calendar year, running from December 31, 2007 through to December 28, 2008, according to figures released by the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry."
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4 comments:
This article starts out by reporting something very positive, and i was excited to hear that Broadway has been doing better despite all the economic issues of the country. However, after the reporter listed all the factors that contributed to this trend (the stagehand strike, Young Frankenstein not reporting its gross), the statistics seem pretty meaningless.
It is encouraging that Broadway continues to do well. Even though there were issues in 2007, the stagehands strike among others, there were also issues in 2008. I think that this is a positive sign, although not a particularly influential one, that Broadway will survive because, as the article said, people still go to the theater. Now that we think Broadway is ok, we should focus our attention to Regional theaters and, most importantly, arts education programs offered by these theaters and elementary and secondary schools around the country.
"Even though the last few months of the year were challenging, these last two weeks encompassing the Christmas and new year’s holidays grossed nearly two million dollars more than the same two-week period last year. This reflects that even in tough economic times, theatregoers go to the theatre.” It gives me hope that they had in greater revenues than the previous year even in this time of turmoil. HopefullY things will get better when Obama takes office.
I agree with Hannah. It's a shame that these stats aren't very accurate in terms of seeing the whole picture of Broadway. Obviously, something is going wrong if all these shows are closing; and, as with any other industry, we've got to find something to help Broadway survive through such a crisis. I am thrilled that things don't appear to be in as worse of a position as we maybe had thought, but I don't think these statistics should make people rest easy when it comes to Broadway's immediate future. I also agree with Chris, too, the focus on educational programs and regionals should also be looked at closely--they too need support and aren't publicized nearly as much as Broadway has been recently.
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