Movie Attention for Chastain Gives \'Heiress\' a Broadway Bounce

The actress Jessica Chastain, fresh off an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for “Zero Dark Thirty,” wasn’t just generating ticket sales at the movies last week. Her Broadway play “The Heiress” had its best week since mid-November, according to box office data released on Tuesday by the Broadway League, the trade association of theater owners and producers.

“The Heiress,” a revival of a 1947 play about a gawky young woman who is less-than-appreciated by her father and a suitor, grossed $596,439 last week, a healthy 66 percent of its maximum potential gross - or more than 20 percent above the show’s grosses through Christmas and New Year’s. Those holiday weeks are a traditionally lucrative time for many Broadway productions, but “The Heiress” - which opened to mixed reviews in November - had been in a bit of a slump until last week.

Ms. Chatain, who won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama on Jan. 13, also had the top two movies at the box office last week, “Mama” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Another Broadway play, “The Other Place,” enjoyed its biggest jump at the box office last week after opening on Jan. 10 to strong reviews. The play, a drama starring Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf as a research scientist who becomes ill, grossed $278,002 - or about 30 percent more than the preview week. As a result of the increased sales, the play - by Sharr White and directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello - has been extended at Manhattan Theater Club by a week until March 3.

And the critically acclaimed play “Golden Boy” had its best ticket sales for its final week on Broadway, grossing $4! 71,181. “Golden Boy” closed on Sunday, as did the Al Pacino-led revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” and the play “Peter and the Starcatcher” (though it is re-opening Off Broadway with new cast members in March).

The top-grossing shows on Broadway last week, in order, were “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon,” “The Lion King,” “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Overall Broadway musicals and plays grossed $19.6 million last week leading into the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, compared to $17.8 million the previous week and $19.3 million for the comparable week last season.