Unhappy critics don’t always hurt. Ecstatic ones don’t always help. That was the lesson last week for two plays new to Broadway, according to figures released on Monday by the Broadway League.
Mixed reviews didn’t do much box office damage to “Misery,” William Goldman’s stage adaptation of the Stephen King novel, which grossed a solid $900,469, up $77,832 from the previous week. Buoyed in part by the star turns of Bruce Willis, in his Broadway debut, and Laurie Metcalf, a Tony nominee, the show, which opened on Nov. 15, was the second-highest-grossing play for the week ending November 22, behind David Mamet’s “China Doll,” starring Al Pacino.
Despite having delayed its opening to Dec. 4 to make room for new material, that show grossed $1,024,914, a strong number for a play though down $177,235 from the week before.
Over-the-moon reviews helped — but didn’t make an instant hit — out of Ivo van Hove’s revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” which grossed $525,280.
Although the show saw an increase of $84,589 from the previous week, it nonetheless was bested at the box office by two older productions: “King Charles III” ($628,174) and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” ($549,727). Free tickets for opening night and for theater journalists are factors in the grosses for both “Misery” and “A View From the Bridge,” as they are in the post-opening week for most Broadway shows.
Among other plays, the revival of A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia” continued to prove a modest draw, bringing in $317,033; on Tuesday the show’s producers announced it would close on Jan. 3, cutting the planned run short by three weeks.
The highest-grossing shows of the week were the musicals “The Lion King” ($1,712,500), “Wicked” ($1,508,157) and “Hamilton” ($1,450,763).