My First Closeread

The Phantom of the Opera: 1888 to 2020

analysis by Iris Carroll

The Phantom of the Opera, originally opening in the West End in 1886, was the longest running Broadway musical with a total of 13,981 performances over its 25 years.⁽¹⁾ The graphs below investigate the weekly gross income of the well-loved show over its first 22 years on Broadway.

There are several interesting things to point out about this graph. What are those 2 low amounts in the early 2000s? Why is the income so variable? Why are there so many spikes everywhere?

We’ll start looking at how the gross weekly income changed by starting at the beginning.

In the early days of the show we can see that the income isn’t quite as variable as later on. My best guess as to why this is simply that there was less variability in ticket prices.

Going a little later, we see ticket prices start to get more variable and actually decrease. This is where the two low points come in.

The first point is from the week of September 9th, 2001. Notably, the same week that the twin towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack. It makes sense then, that the gross income of that week was lower considering the first thought of patrons would not have been to see a musical in New York City.

The second point is during March of 2003. This is likely due to a musicians strike that started on March 7th, 2003 and ended on March 11th, 2003, during which Broadway went dark.⁽²⁾ The strike was in protest of live music being replaced by virtual orchestra, putting the livelihoods of many musicians in jeapaordy. A settlement was reached where the minimum size requirements for a live orchestra were reduced, but not to the point where live music was obsolete. If no shows were being performed, it stands to reason that the gross income for the show would be lower that week.

From there, Phantom’s gross weekly income steadily increases in an up-down pattern until 2020. Some weeks the show far exceeds the income of its early years, but the vast majority of weeks it sits below its original income.

The spikes are the craziest here, with the largest spike occuring in late December of 2017.

The question remains: why is the gross weekly income in recent years so variable? The answer is in the ticket price.

This graph shows the average cost of a Phantom of the Opera ticket over time.

Looking at the graphs next to each other, it becomes clear how much ticket prices affect weekly gross income. This makes sense of an intuitive level, but adding the graph of average ticket prices over time shows how much the price of tickets has exploded, even when accounting for inflation.

The average ticket price in late December of 2017, the week with the highest gross weekly income before 2020, was an austounding $188.96 in 2024 dollars.

data taken from tidytuesday