Broadway Grosses: Holiday Week Attracts Audiences as Four Shows Begin Previews

Holidays usually boost Broadway’s box offices, and Presidents’ Week 2011 was no exception: Family audiences helped push shows such as Wicked, Spider-Man and The Lion King to near-record highs, and Billie Joe Armstrong’s final week in American Idiot proved to be a million-dollar draw. Four new shows got off to very promising starts, with two of the newcomers, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and The Book of Mormon, muscling their way into the frontrunners’ list for capacity. (Arcadia and Ghetto Klown are also previewing.)

Here is a look at who was on top and who was not for the week ending February 27:

FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)
1. Wicked ($1,660,095)
2. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark ($1,559,341)*
3. The Lion King ($1,541,682)
4. American Idiot ($1,301,949)
5. Jersey Boys ($1,062,895)

UNDERDOGS (By Gross)
5. Lombardi ($315,490)
4. Good People ($283,237)*
3. Colin Quinn: Long Story Short ($179,020)
2. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying ($162,403)**
1. Arcadia ($74,305)**

FRONTRUNNERS (By Capacity)
1. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (100.14%)**
2. Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark (100.08%)*
3. Wicked (100%)
4. The Book of Mormon (98.38%)***
5. Jersey Boys (98.02%)

UNDERDOGS (By Capacity)
5. Chicago (80.72%)
4. Lombardi (72.74%)
3. La Cage aux Folles (66.24%)
2. Million Dollar Quartet (62.02%)
1. Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (61.56%)

*Number based on eight preview performances.
**Number based on one preview performance.
***Number based on four preview performances.
Data provided by the Broadway League.