'Wicked' Breaks Broadway Box Office Record... Again

Variety reports that the long-running Broadway musical Wicked broke its own box office record last week with over $2.09 million in ticket sales, making it the top grossing week in Broadway history. The previous record (only about $10,000 less) was set by Wicked during the week of Thanksgiving performances this year.

At the same time, The Lion King earned more than $1.7 million, setting a new house record for the Minskoff Theater. Other Broadway shows enjoyed a similar box office bump during the Christmas week.

On the other hand, Variety adds that the total Broadway box office tally was down from $27.2 million during the same week in 2008 to $24.3 million in 2009, and overall attendance dipped from 94% to about 81% in the same time period. The holiday season isn't over yet, though, and "often the biggest sales tallies come from performances during the week between Christmas and New Year's, so some productions at least can likely look forward to extending the B.O. buzz by another week."

-- Daniel Lehman