‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Scores Best-Ever $1.9M, ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’ Takes $3M In Busy Week – Broadway Box Office

Stranger Things: The First Shadow saw a big jump in grosses last week, amid the release of season five of the Netflix series and as Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Henry Creel/Vecna in the series, made a surprise appearance in the Dec. 19 show.

via: Deadline

The holiday season is bringing Broadway some box office bounty, with grosses for the week ending December 21 totaling $47,437,512, an 8% boost over the previous week. Attendance for the 36 shows was 317,531, about 5% greater than the previous week.

Particularly noticeable were the continued winning streaks of productions reinvigorated by cast additions (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child now features film franchise star Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy), final performances (Art and Little Bear Ridge Road filled about 95% of available seats in the last week of their runs), and some upticks in attention delivered by renewed interest in franchises (Stranger Things: The First Shadow had its biggest week to date, scoring $1,917,541 with ticket-buyers no doubt spurred by the return of the Netflix series) while The Great Gatsby is benefitting from the return of original star Jeremy Jordan. And Wicked is still going strong with the recent release of the movie Wicked: For Good.

Also hitting its best-ever peak was Mamma Mia!, grossing $2,085,523 as it enters the countdown to its February 1 closing date.

The Top 10 earners for the week were Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, $3,038,963; Wicked, $3,001,721; Hamilton, $2,983,979; The Lion King, $2,754,103; Mamma Mia!; Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Chess, $1,727,978 ; MJ, $1,659,386; Aladdin, $1,602,12; and Art, $1,590,503, which recouped it investment this month.

Sell-outs (or just shy thereof) were Hadestown, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Just in Time, Mamma Mia!, Maybe Happy Ending, Oh, Mary!, Ragtime, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, Waiting For Godot and Wicked.

While The Queen of Versailles starring Kristin Chenoweth saw attendance up in the final week of its unsuccessful run, but grosses were off by $161,577 from the previous week to $630,613.

Some other notable numbers:

• Bug, the Tracy Letts play starring Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood, took in $348,771 for its first seven previews at the non-profit Friedman. Opening night is January 8;

  
  

• All Out: Comedy About Ambition, the starry staged readings of Simon Rich short stories, took in $1,073,175 for seven performances, filling 95% of seats at the Nederlander;

  
  

• Oedipus, which had a free student matinee on Wednesday, grossed $695,736, with 91% of Studio 54’s seats occupied.

  
  

Top average ticket prices – each surpassing the $200 mark – were Hamilton, $278.90; Just In Time, $258.48; Harry Potter, $234.20; and The Lion King, $208.19. Average ticket price for all 36 productions was $149.39.

Season to date, Broadway, in the 30th week of the 2025-26 season, has grossed $1,093,353,248, up about 10% over last year at this time, with total attendance of 8,226,319 up 3%.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For more box office information visit the League’s website.