Broadway Box Office: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Tops Grosses As Holiday Buzz Wears Off

Broadway grosses fell back down to the earth last week as the holiday buzz wore off.

Overall, the industry was down 34 percent from the lucrative highs of the prior week, with attendance dropping close to 13 percent and the average ticket price dropping $40. Two productions, Waiting For Godot and Beetlejuice, had played their final performances Jan. 4 and Jan. 3, which meant the industry was also down to 31 productions last week, compared to 33 the week prior.

Bug, starring Carrie Coon, opened Jan. 8 to largely positive reviews, but saw a close to $130,000 drop in grosses due to the comped opening night, as well as the cancellation of two shows leading up to opening.

Liberation, which had been struggling during the holiday weeks, bucked the trend and saw a turnaround in last week as the show jumped up 86 percent capacity (from 65 percent) at the James Earl Jones Theatre and saw grosses jump up $200,000 to $639,035, the…