Twelve months' worth of plays and musical collected a total of $748.9 million in its collective till. That figure is a 3.2 percent improvement over 2003's $725.4 million. Ticketbuyers flocked in increased numbers during the same period. During 2004, 11.3 million tickets were sold, a jump of 2.2. percent, or 230,000 ducats, from the 2003 total.
Contributing to this upswing were such phenomena as Billy Crystal's box office smash 700 Sundays, which took in $600,000 the day after its Dec. 5 opening; the hit Sean Combs revival of A Raisin in the Sun; the unexpected success of the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Twelve Angry Men, which has extended several times; and the consistent performance of such new audience favorites as Wicked and Avenue Q.
