For the first time Broadway topped $40 million in a single week over the holidays, with a whopping 19 productions grossing more than $1 million apiece, including three that pulled in over $2 million.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, While ‘Wicked’ failed to repeat its record tally of $3 million for the corresponding week in 2013, the musical back story of the witches from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ led the field for the week ending Dec. 28, grossing $2.9 million.
However, ‘The Lion King’ was just a whisker behind with $2.8 million setting a new house record at the Minskoff Theatre. The Disney musical is poised to take the honors as the top-selling Broadway show of 2014, with an annual tally to date of $100 million, inching ahead of ‘Wicked’ with $94 million for the second consecutive year.
Several shows add extra performances over the holidays, pushing the week’s total box office to $41 million for 36 productions, and generating almost 320,000 admissions. That marks a boost from the same week in 2013, which totaled $39 million, with about 290,000 admissions.
In addition to ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Lion King’, the third show to gross more than $2 million last week was ‘The Book of Mormon’, with $2 million.
