The Broadway League has released end-of-season statistics for the 2011-2012 season, which are the highest grossing of any season on record.
The season began May 30, 2011 and ended May 27, 2012. Grosses were $1,139,311,457, which is up 5.4% from last year’s $1.08 billion figure. Total attendance was 12.33 million, slightly down from last year’s figure of 12.53 million.
However, to account for variances in the calendar year and in an effort to maintain an end-of-May end to the season, a 53rd week is added to the Broadway season every seven years, which was the case for the 2010-2011 season. If adjusted to a 52-week year, attendance was at 12.3 million for last season, which makes it fairly close to this year’s attendance figure.
There were 40 new shows that opened during the 2011-2012 season: 14 musicals, 23
plays, and 3 special events. All new and continuing productions ran a total of 1522 playing weeks.