First came word from Deadline after the first performance…
Paramour, the first made-for-Broadway venture from Cirque du Soleil, got off to a rousing start last week in the Street’s biggest house, the Ambassador Theatre Group’s Lyric Theatre, selling out all 1,896 seats and taking in a hair’s breadth shy of full potential for its first preview. The tally was $190,774, at an average ticket price of $100.57.
And a week later? According to The New York Times…
Cirque du Soleil’s first Broadway venture, “Paramour,” is off to an unusually strong start at the box office, drawing large crowds to see this musical-theater-meets-acrobatics spectacle at the cavernous Lyric Theater. The show, about a love triangle set in Hollywood’s golden age, grossed just over $1 million ($1.02 million, 89% of potential, filling a bit more than 93% of the seats at an average ticket price of $95.92) for six performances last week, as it begins a long period of previews building toward a scheduled opening on May 26.
Let’s put that into some context. First, the Lyric Theatre which, with 1,896 seats in its current configuration, is Broadway’s biggest house. The show played six previews and took in $1.02 million, 89% of potential, while filling a bit more than 93% of the seats at an average ticket price of $95.92. Disney’s The Lion King, at the Nederlanders’ Minskoff (with 1,597 seats), was the top grossing show this past week at $2 million, with an average ticket price of $148.09. So, for at least the first preview week, Cirque is selling tickets, they’re filling up the house, and the price is right to do both consistently. We’ll have to see how next week, and the week after, and so on and so forth, goes… for now it seems Cirque Theatrical has stuck success in Paramour!
{ SOURCE: Deadline, New York Times | http://goo.gl/KPuIdH, http://goo.gl/ntsKEO }
