Broadway Box Office: Robert Downey Jr.’s ‘McNeal’ Sells Out First Four Previews

The new Broadway play McNeal, starring Robert Downey Jr., started off with a bang, with $746,230 brought in across just four performances last week.

If the production, which is playing at the Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, had played the typical eight performances at that cadence, it would have brought in close to $1.5 million – a big number for a play, putting it in league with the top-grossing musicals. The production played to full houses for every performance, with an average ticket price of $170.37, the second highest in the industry for the week, behind Cabaret, and unusual for a nonprofit house with a large subscription audience.

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The play, written by Ayad Akhtar and directed by Bartlett Sher, marks Downey’s Broadway debut and sees him portray a gifted author, but one who always finds himself as runner up for the Pulitzer, as he develops an intense fascination with artificial intelligence. McNeal began previews Sept. 5 and is set to open on Sept. 30.

Cole Escola’s comedy Oh Mary! is continuing its strong run at the Lyceum Theatre, breaking the box office record for the fifth time last week and bringing in $1.1 million and playing to 100 percent capacity.

However, most Broadway shows saw a drop in grosses as the industry exits the Labor Day holiday and enters the promotional Broadway Week period, which sees ticket deals for many shows from Sept. 3 through Sept. 15. Total gross for the industry was down 9.5 percent compared to the prior week, while attendance was down just 1.4 percent.

Cabaret was one of the other exceptions, as the revival saw grosses jump $50,000 week to week. The production brought in $1.5 million, making it the third highest grossing show of the week. Current stars Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin are set to exit their roles after Sept. 14, with Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho taking over starting Sept. 16.

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