The Broadway League is the clearinghouse for information on the business, demographics, and economic impact of Broadway theatre throughout North America.
The League compiles various statistics and publishes extensive reports on a number of topics. For brief excerpts from recently published reports, click on the links below.
Printed and PDF versions of the reports are available for purchase. Order copies here.
The Demographics of the Broadway Audience
2017-2018 SEASON
The Demographics of the Broadway Audience 2017-2018 is a profile of the audience at Broadway shows from June 2017 through May 2018. It is the twenty-first annual report in our series, analyzing the composition of the audience today in comparison to past years and attempting to note trends for the future. The report includes information regarding the demographics, ticket purchasing habits, and consumer preferences of the Broadway theatregoer.
49 pages, illustrated with color charts and graphs. Published October, 2018.
The Audience for Touring Broadway
2017-2018 SEASON
62 pages, illustrated with color charts and graphs, published February 2019.
Broadway's Economic Contribution to New York City
2016-2017 SEASON
This biennial report analyzes the economic impact of money spent in New York specifically because of Broadway - including dollars spent on mounting and running Broadway productions and maintenance of theatres; as well as monies spent by visitors to New York on Broadway related ancillary spending.
During the 2016-2017 season, the Broadway industry contributed $12.63 billion to the economy of New York City and supported 87,100 jobs.
This amount consisted of direct spending in three areas: spending by producers to produce and run shows; spending by theatre owners to maintain and renovate venues; and ancillary purchases by "Broadway Tourists" (defined as non-NYC residents who said that Broadway was a very important reason for their coming to New York City). The money that was directly spent in these areas was then re-spent in multiple subsequent rounds, until the original sums left New York City. The sum of the subsequent rounds and the original spending total the full contribution of $12.63 billion.
45 pages, illustrated with color with charts, graphs, and photos.
The Economic Impact of Touring Broadway
2016-2017 SEASON
In the 2016–2017 season, 41 Touring Broadway shows traveled to 191 cities across the country.
Producers and presenters spent $1 billion to launch and run these tours.
Of this amount, $728.8 million was spent in the theatres’ communities and $279.8 million in the New York City area. The remaining $29.6 million was spent in other areas (i.e. vendors who were situated elsewhere or foreign royalty holders) that is beyond the scope of the impact analysis.
Moreover, theatregoers who came to an area specifically to attend shows spent another $746.1 million on ancillary activities such as dining and transportation.
Thus the total direct spending due to Touring Broadway amounted to $1.78 billion.
This money then generated another $2.0 billion in secondary rounds of spending, so that the full economic contribution of Touring Broadway totaled $3.8 billion to these 191 cities.
Eighty-three percent of this money ($3.2 billion) supported the communities that presented Broadway tours. Another $610.2 million impacted the New York City area.
On average, Broadway tours contributed an economic impact of 3.28 times the gross ticket sales to the economy of the metropolitan areas in which they played.
31 pages, illustrated with color with charts, graphs, and photos.
Published June 2019