Hollywood reporting was recently abuzz that on the heels of record Memorial Day weekend grosses led by the Lilo & Stitch remake and a Mission: Impossible sequel, total summer box office could cross the $4bn mark for only the second time since the Covid disruption of 2020. (The first time was summer 2023, on the strength of Barbenheimer.) To be clear, this wouldn’t guarantee an all-time summer record; the numbers would need to get a lot closer to $5bn for that to happen. But something in the $4bn range would be closer to pre-pandemic business as usual, in line with most of the 2010s.
Given the struggles so many movie theaters and studios have faced while hoping to find their way back to that old sense of normal, it’s surprising to learn that a different and far pricier style of box office record was just shattered. The 2024-2025 Broadway season is ending up as the highest-grossing in history, its $1.89bn surpassing the 2018-2019 season’s $1.82bn. Given the specialized nature of Broadway productions – they’re less accessible, more expensive, and frankly less physically comfortable than going to the movies, even just within New York City – this seems like a spectacular triumph. What happened?
