While the New York City Marathon brought 51,000 runners to all five boroughs, those runners were not racing to Broadway shows.
The marathon, which wound through the city Sunday, brought together runners from 51 countries, with 37% of those runners coming from outside the U.S., according to Forbes. But those spectators and runners may not be theater fans, as grosses for the week ended Nov. 5 took a 5% dip from the previous week, adding on to a historical trend.
In the past four out of five years on Broadway, grosses have dropped for the week that ends around the marathon, which is always on a Sunday. In that time frame, 2012 saw the biggest drop in grosses, with a fall of 32%, according to an analysis of grosses provided by the Broadway League.
Last year was an exception, but weekly grosses across all shows rose just 1%, to $25,378,948 from $25,194,007 in the previous week.
The overall dip in grosses comes even as the race had an overall economic impact of $415 million on the city, according to 2014 numbers from consulting firm AECOM.
In the past five years, grosses have risen again in the week after the marathon.
Of the 27 shows currently on Broadway (excluding “Meteor Shower,” which did not have a prior week comparison), 18 posted lower grosses compared to the previous week. The lowered grosses included top box office stalwarts “Wicked,” “Lion King” and “The Book of Mormon.”
“Hello Dolly” saw a particularly large drop of $1.5 million compared to the previous week, but that came as Bette Midler was out of the show from Nov. 1 through Nov. 5, with Donna Murphy playing the lead role.
Still, a few individual shows shone through, with “Waitress” posting grosses of $900,167 for the week, an increase of $172,772 over the previous week, as the show added new cast member Jason Mraz.
“Hamilton” continued to be nonstop, posting a $264,143 increase from the previous week, making it the largest gainer by dollar amount.
