Wind in their Sales: Congestion Pricing is No ‘Toll’ on the Broadway Box Office

Everything’s coming up roses!

Despite doom prognostications, congestion pricing has not hurt Broadway’s bottom line a bit — and, in fact, may be boosting it.

According to the Broadway League — the Great White Way’s trade group — ticket sales rose year-over-year in both the third and fourth weeks of January. No, it’s not enough to save every struggling show, but every producer in town should at least be sending pizza to the dressing rooms. (We chose year-over-year stats rather than week to week because Broadway sales typically go through the roof during the holiday season — and congestion pricing began on Jan. 5.)

Obviously, it’s way too early to use such figures to call the naysayers by their favorite musical: the lyin’ kings on Broadway. But producer Ken Davenport, Broadway Association head Cristyne Nicholas and shitposters on the Broadway World forums have been raising the specter of dark houses for so long that they should at least be held accountable. (That said, Davenport and Nicholas did not respond to our questions.)

The MTA of course celebrated the Streetsblog number-crunch.

“And the 2025 Tony for most time saved by theatergoers goes to … congestion relief,” said MTA Chief for Policy and External Relations John McCarthy. “Most take subways, buses, bikes, cabs or walk to Broadway shows. The relatively few who drive are seeing much less traffic. So, no surprise that attendance and ticket sales are way up.”

Of course, the notion that congestion pricing was going to undermine the Broadway bottom line was always specious at best.

According to Broadway League statistics (that we had to pay for, though we’ll share them for free), the vast majority of theatergoers are either from New York City or visiting from outside the region or from other countries — very few of whom drive around the city.

In the end, only 15.6 percent of Broadway-goers drove their own car to the theater whereas 76.2 percent of the audience walks or uses transit, according to the League.

In addition, the average household income of a suburbanite who goes to Broadway is $294,000. “Twenty-eight percent of the audience reported an
average annual household income of $250,000 or above, compared to
7 percent of the U.S. population,” the League said.

The average ticket price for a show is $161.20, meaning if four New Jersey residents get in a car to take in a hot musical, the additional $6 congestion toll they’ll pay represents 0.9 percent of their theater costs, before even calculating in food, parking, souvenirs and maybe a post-show drink at Sardi’s.

Of course, cultured people know all that, given the Broadway League’s boast that “Broadway theatregoers attained higher levels of education than the United States public in general.”