The Book of Mormon's record-breaking success: By the numbers
The Tony-winning toast of Broadway is smashing sales records left and right. But if you want to see it, it's going to cost you — big time
It's been a blockbuster week for the Broadway smash hit, The Book of Mormon, an irreverent tale of two well-intentioned, fish-out-of-water Mormon missionaries in Uganda, written and produced by the creators of the nothing-is-sacred cartoon South Park. The musical won nine Tony Awards on Sunday, its cast album skyrocketed to number three on the Billboard charts, and its top premium ticket price just eclipsed the record set by The Producers in 2001. Here, a brief guide to Mormon's success, by the numbers:
$487.25
Price of a premium ticket to Book of Mormon bought less than 48 hours before a performance, according to Telecharge
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$480
Price of a premium ticket to The Producers in 2001, which previously held the record for top ticket price
$612
The price of that 2001 Producers ticket today, adjusted for inflation, according to Bloomberg
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$1,832.75
Price for a pair of orchestra seats to a Saturday performance of Book of Mormon, listed on StubHub
$162.25
Regular price of a Book of Mormon orchestra seat, also a Broadway record
$30 million
Estimated advanced ticket sales as of June 14, according to The Los Angeles Times
$14.9 million
Estimated gross of Book of Mormon so far, not including advanced ticket sales
$1.184 million
Gross from ticket sales for the the week ending June 12, according to Broadway World
102.4
Percent capacity at which the Book of Mormon has been playing for the past 11 weeks
61,000
Copies sold of The Book of Mormon Original Cast Recording in the week following the Tony Awards, putting it at number three on the Billboard album charts
13,000
Copies of the cast album sold during its first week on the charts in May, when it debuted at number 31. Its first-week sales made it the fastest selling Broadway cast album in iTunes history.
42
Number of years since a Broadway cast album reached the Top 10, according to Billboard. It was 1969, and the show was Hair.
54,000
Previous best sales week by a Broadway cast album, by The Phantom of the Opera in 1992
14
Number of Tony nominations The Book of Mormon received, one nod short of the record held by The Producers and Billy Elliot
9
Number of Tony awards The Book of Mormon won
Sources: Billboard, Bloomberg, Broadway World, LA Times, Playbill
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