‘Hadestown’ Didn’t Put Up ‘The Odyssey’ Numbers, but the Musical Had a Historic Box Office Weekend — SkimNews
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- Hadestown: The Musical live capture opened to $10.2 million domestically from just shy of 2,000 screens, the highest opening ever for a Broadway live capture, surpassing Disney's theatrical release of Hamilton ($10.1 million in 2025).
- Bleecker Street's Crosswalk event cinema label and LD Entertainment planned only a five-day special event release, but strong presales led to an extension, with the film now positioned to potentially surpass Hamilton's $16.9 million domestic total.
- The result makes Hadestown Bleecker Street's biggest opening ever, ahead of Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky ($7.7 million in 2017), and places it in the distributor's top five releases after a single weekend.
- Sunday's box office exceeded $2.5 million and fell just 3 percent from Saturday, vastly outperforming Bleecker's internal projection of a 20 percent drop — with Bleecker CEO Kent Sanderson attributing the surge to an intentionally long ticket presale window and general audience turnout beyond diehard fans.
- Director Brett Sullivan helmed the capture from Hadestown's London West End run; he also directed Bleecker's 2023 release of Waitress: The Musical, which earned $5.4 million domestically.
- Crosswalk's next release is George Michael: The Faith Tour in December, strategically placed a week ahead of Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday to claim IMAX screens — the same 'scarcity drives urgency' ethos the banner used with its first release, Stray Kids: the dominATE Experience ($7.2 million in March).
- The Odyssey dropped just 30 percent in its second weekend for one of the best second weekends ever, bringing its global cumulative gross to $652 million; Hadestown's release slot was chosen specifically because the weekend sat uncontested between The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Why it matters: Bleecker Street's Crosswalk event-cinema strategy beat Hamilton's opening with a non-'cultural landmark' musical, proving Broadway live captures can draw general audiences beyond fanbases. The distributor's December George Michael release is positioned as deliberate counterprogramming to claim IMAX screens before Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday arrive.
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