Newbies propel Broadway box office rise

Broadway box office acquired some steam in Week 20 (March. 10-16) as four productions started previews and "Follies" came back towards the millionaires' club. "Other Desert Metropolitan areas" ($334,839 for six previews), "Chinglish" ($305,443 for eight), "Godspell" ($268,641 for six) and "Venus in Fur" ($157,454 for five) all became a member of the fray. "Follies" ($1,037,906), which reported a dip two days ago likely motivated with a flurry of soon-to-expire discount ducat prices, leaped support within the $a million mark. Meanwhile, any worries of the hit in the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, which decamped over the past weekend to Occasions Square, demonstrated unproven. "Priscilla Full of Desert" ($860,673), for example, rose by a lot more than $100,000, fueled by a look and feel on Rosie O'Donnell's yakker. Rialto cume hit $21,328,673 for that 26 shows around the boards. Attendance tally of 229,906 found 88% of overall capacity, well in front of last season at this time around, if this rang in at 81.9%.The 19 musicals made $17,916,594 for 84% from the Broadway total, with attendance of 185,995 at 87.6% capacity as well as an average compensated admission of $96.33.The seven plays made $3,412,079 for 16% from the Broadway total, with attendance of 43,911 at 91.9% capacity as well as an average compensated admission of $77.70. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com