When it comes to attracting crowds, the Great White Way is not playing around.
The Broadway League announced Tuesday the 2017-2018 season was the most attended and highest grossing season in history.
The season, which ended May 27, included 33 productions that collectively sold 13.79 million tickets, a 3.9 percent increase from the 2016-2017 season. Gross earnings grew 17.1 percent from last year, amounting to about $1.7 billion.
The Broadway League, a trade organization, boasted that the productions’ collective attendance surpassed the combined tickets sold for major New York and New Jersey professional sports teams during that period by 3.5 million.
“It’s been a remarkably diverse season with a wide variety of outstanding musicals and plays on Broadway that have attracted a record number of theatregoers proving once again that there really is something for everyone on Broadway in a wide range of price points,” the league’s president, Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement.
Headlining productions included the New York version of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and the revival of “Angels in America.”
The league was careful to note this season technically included 53 weeks, but still smashed records from the most recent 53-week season in 2010-2011.
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly stated the season-over-season growth percentage. There was a 3.9 percent increase from the 2016-2017 season.
