Broadway 2024–25 in review: a record season, led by star plays
The Pulse · Season in review · 2024–25
Broadway grossed a record $1.89B in 2024–25, +23% on the season before and the first season above the 2018–19 high of $1.83B. The season had 53 weeks, one more than usual; taking out an average week, the gain would still have been about 21% (our estimate). Most of it was volume: playing weeks rose 16% to 1,712, attendance 19% to 14.7M and capacity to 91.2%, while the average ticket rose 3%. What changed at the top of the chart was stars in plays.
A retrospective, published October 4, 2026, from the Broadway League's season statistics and the reporting cited below.
The season in numbers
Total gross
$1.89B
vs 2023–24 +23%
vs 2018–19 +3.5%
Attendance
14.7M
vs 2023–24 +19%
vs 2018–19 −0.7%
Avg. paid ticket
$129.12
vs 2023–24 +3.1%
Capacity
91.2%
from 89.6%
Playing weeks
1,712
53-week season (one week longer than usual)
New productions
43
39 the season before
Broadway gross by season · $ billions
The record: the first season above $1.83B.
2015–16
1.37
2016–17
1.45
2017–18
1.70
2018–19
1.83
2019–20
1.36
2021–22
0.85
2022–23
1.58
2023–24
1.54
2024–25
1.89
Red: the season reviewed here. Muted: the two seasons cut short by the pandemic (2019–20 stopped in March 2020; 2021–22 began in late summer 2021; there was no 2020–21 season). Source: the Broadway League.
The star plays
01
Good Night, and Good Luck led the final week.
George Clooney's play was the top grosser in the season's last week, at $4.24M with an average paid ticket of $337.59 (BroadwayWorld). In early May it had become the first play to gross more than $4M in a week (Broadway News).
02
Othello † and Glengarry Glen Ross † followed it.
In the same week Othello, with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, grossed $3.33M at an average ticket of $398.79, and Glengarry Glen Ross, with Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr, $2.75M in a nine-performance week (BroadwayWorld; Ken Davenport). Good Night's and Othello's average tickets were 2.6 and 3.1 times the season's $129.
03
Oh, Mary! did it without a movie star.
Cole Escola's comedy, capitalized at $4.525M, was the season's first show to recoup, in November 2024, and the first show in the Lyceum's history to gross $1M in a week (Playbill).
Wicked's year
The film of Wicked opened in November 2024 and went on to gross $758.7M worldwide (The Numbers). In the week ending December 29, 2024, the stage show became the first Broadway show to gross more than $5M in a week, in a week when Broadway as a whole took $55.8M (Broadway News). A film can send an audience to a long-runner; the next season would show how long that lasts.
The Tonys: surprises and shut-outs
01
The musical races.
Maybe Happy Ending †, a small original musical about two robots, won six of its ten nominations, including Best Musical, score, book, Michael Arden's direction and Darren Criss, who won leading actor over Jonathan Groff (Just in Time †). Nicole Scherzinger won leading actress for Sunset Blvd., over Audra McDonald in Gypsy, and Sunset Blvd. took Best Revival of a Musical. Buena Vista Social Club † won four, including Natalie Venetia Belcon for featured actress, and Operation Mincemeat † won for Jak Malone.
02
The plays.
Purpose won Best Play and a second Tony for Kara Young. Cole Escola won leading actor for Oh, Mary!, which also won Sam Pinkleton the direction prize; Sarah Snook won leading actress for The Picture of Dorian Gray; Eureka Day won Best Revival of a Play.
03
Shut-outs.
Gypsy won no awards. Death Becomes Her won one award from ten nominations, for Paul Tazewell's costumes, and Dead Outlaw won none (Playbill).
Around the world
London's West End drew more than 17.1M theatregoers in calendar 2024, 11% above its pre-pandemic level and nearly 5M more than Broadway in the same year (Society of London Theatre, via BroadwayWorld). Broadway's record season was not the world's only one.
What it set up
The record was built on more shows playing more weeks to fuller houses, and on star plays that grossed like musicals. Both are hard to repeat. At 91% full, capacity has little room left to rise, and star plays are limited runs that end when the star leaves, so a market that leans on them has to find new ones every season. 2025–26 did, by 1%.
Notes
† OFFSCRIPT is a producer, co-producer or investor in Othello, Glengarry Glen Ross, Maybe Happy Ending, Buena Vista Social Club, Operation Mincemeat and Just in Time (marked †). The recoupment named here is the production's own public announcement. Observations on other productions come from published grosses and reporting, not from their books.
Sources: the Broadway League (season statistics 2015–16 to 2025–26); Broadway News (2024–25 season statistics, May 2025; Good Night, and Good Luck's first $4 million week; Wicked's $5 million week, December 2024); BroadwayWorld (grosses for the week ending May 25, 2025; West End attendance, April 2025); Ken Davenport, grosses for the week ending May 25, 2025; Playbill (Oh, Mary! recoupment, November 2024; 2025 Tony Award winners); The Numbers (Wicked).
Season figures are the Broadway League's, for the League's season (late May to late May); percentage changes are computed from the League's unrounded figures. Educational only; not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security.
The Pulse is OFFSCRIPT's weekly read on the Broadway grosses, every Tuesday, alongside Investing Unpacked. How we read the numbers: our methodology.