Broadway's WICKED Reaches $1 Billion Mark At The Box Office

Variety reports that Broadway juggernaut Wicked has become the third production on the Great White Way to notch over $1 billion at the box office.

The show has achieved the milestone faster than any other Broadway production that has topped $1 billion in New York sales alone — an elite pantheon of which there are only two other members, “The Lion King” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” Disney juggernaut “The Lion King” was the first to do it in 2013, 16 years after its 1997 bow, and evergreen “Phantom” followed in 2015, some 27 years after its 1988 premiere. (Back when “Phantom” opened, a sold-out smash translated to about $550,000 in late-80s dollars, a far cry from the $3.2 million “Wicked” scored over a record-breaking holiday week in 2013.)

“Wicked” has spent the majority of its run at or near the top of Broadway’s weekly sales chart. The $1 billion cumulative take accounts for about one quarter of the title’s $4 billion worldwide sales; more than $2.8 billion of that comes from the show’s other North American companies, including tours and sit-down productions in Chicago, L.A. and San Francisco.

Internationally, the musical has played to 50 million people in 14 countries, including Japan, Mexico and Australia, and been translated into six languages. A West End outpost has been running in London since 2006.

Interesting footnote: Wicked did not win Best Musical or Best Score at the 2004 Tony Awards (Avenue Q snagged those prizes). As a matter of fact, the show only won 3 Tony Awards.

I'd say living well is truly the best revenge :)

(tipped by Randy Report reader John)