‘Hadestown’ Didn’t Put Up ‘The Odyssey’ Numbers, but the Musical Had a Historic Box Office Weekend
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- Hadestown: The Musical opened to $10.2 million domestically from just under 2,000 screens, becoming the highest opening for a Broadway live capture ever, edging past Disney's theatrical 'Hamilton' release which made $10.1 million in 2025.
- Bleecker Street's Crosswalk banner distributed the film with LD Entertainment; the opening makes it Bleecker's biggest opening ever, surpassing Steven Soderbergh's 'Logan Lucky,' which opened to $7.7 million in 2017.
- Originally planned as a five-day event release, 'Hadestown' will now stay in theaters at least another weekend and has the potential to surpass 'Hamilton's' $16.9 million domestic haul, per the source.
- Sunday's box office exceeded $2.5 million, vastly outperforming Bleecker's internal projections of a 20% drop — the film actually fell just 3% on Sunday, nudging the opening total past Hamilton's record.
- Director Brett Sullivan captured the film from its London West End run; he also directed Bleecker's 2023 release of 'Waitress: The Musical' to $5.4 million domestic.
- Bleecker CEO Kent Sanderson said presale numbers were so strong the distributor requested to extend the run before opening; the majority of tickets sold on opening weekend came from general audiences, not just fans.
- Crosswalk's next release is 'George Michael: The Faith Tour,' targeted for December as strategic counterprogramming ahead of 'Dune: Part Three' and 'Avengers: Doomsday,' even squeezing out a few IMAX screens.
Why it matters: Bleecker Street's upstart event cinema label Crosswalk has now delivered two consecutive openings — 'Stray Kids' at $7.2M and now 'Hadestown' at $10.2M — validating its scarcity-driven model beyond niche K-pop fan events, with general audiences buying tickets for a Tony-winning musical that the source notes is not considered as culturally monumental as Hamilton. The December George Michael placement explicitly stakes a claim on the IMAX gap before Dune 3 and Avengers: Doomsday arrive.
