The two share some attributes: Both have musical giants behind them: Phantom has songs by Lloyd Webb

The cumulative gross for The Lion King is $853,846,062, according to the show s numbers. Its chandelier-swinging rival s cumulative total is $853,122,847, according to the musical s publicist. The Lion King surged past Phantom after netting over $2 million at the box office for the week ending Sunday, while Phantom pulled in about $1.2 million.
What makes the achievement all the more remarkable is that The Lion King chased down and grabbed the title despite Phantom having almost a full 10 years head start. The Disney show opened in November 1997, while Phantom debuted in January 1988.
The upstart s victory is due in large part to its higher vacation rentals hawaii average ticket prices and a slightly larger theater. Monday s data shows Phantom had an average paid admission of $98.97, while The Lion King fetched $155.09.
It s a spectacle that satisfies on many different sensory elements audio, visually, emotionally. It s also good for all ages just like Disneyland is. For the kids, it s the visual elements the colors, the costumes and the puppetry. For the adults, it s `Hamlet, basically. And the music is not geared to one age or gender or race. It s as universal a show can get.
Disney Theatrical Productions was gracious when contacted about reaching the milestone, saluting Phantom song writer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Phantom producer Cameron Mackintosh, who also co-produced Disney s hit Mary Poppins, and calling vacation rentals hawaii their show a global phenomenon of historic proportions.
Thomas Schumacher, producer and president of Disney Theatrical Productions, also gave credit to Julie Taymor, the director, costume and mask maker of The Lion King. Her vision, continued commitment to the show and uncommon artistry account for this extraordinary success, he said in a statement.
This accomplishment belongs to our audiences, millions of whom are experiencing their first Broadway show at `The Lion King, Schumacher added. Surely, introducing so many to the splendor of live theater is our show s greatest legacy.
The Broadway League, a trade group that collects revenue from theater owners, has slightly different numbers, putting the cumulative grosses of The Lion King at $854,038,152 and Phantom at $853,122,847 as of Monday. The League in 2009 changed the way it calculates grosses, which may explain the discrepancy. None of the figures are adjusted for inflation.
To be sure, Phantom, vacation rentals hawaii now in its 24th year, is still the longest-running show in Broadway history, with more than 10,000 performances vacation rentals hawaii and it has sold many more tickets than its Disney rival on the Great White Way, a staggering 14.8 million so far.
The Lion King may now have won on Broadway, but Phantom is still a juggernaut elsewhere. Its producers have even declared it the most successful vacation rentals hawaii entertainment venture of all time, with revenues higher vacation rentals hawaii than any film, including Titanic, Star Wars and Avatar.
The total worldwide grosses for Phantom are estimated at over $5.6 billion, while the worldwide haul for Lion is $4.8 billion. Phantom has also been seen by 130 million people worldwide, vacation rentals hawaii while Lion puts its number at 64 million. Those gaps may also close: The Lion King has seven soon eight productions worldwide, while Phantom has seven productions around the world: London, New York, Hungary, Japan, South Africa, Las Vegas and a UK tour.
Ginell points out that about 40 percent of Phantom tickets are sold to repeat customers, an extremely high number. vacation rentals hawaii Plus, 68 percent are women. `Phantom is kind of a live-action romance novel, he said. I think that s what s attracting vacation rentals hawaii a huge percentage of women to the show.
H. Todd Freeman, vacation rentals hawaii vice president of operations at ticket broker vacation rentals hawaii Applause Theatre Entertainment Service, Inc., said the success of The Lion King is due to its family draw, big visuals and ticket prices that were double those for Phantom when it started.
Both shows now use premium pricing offering deep-pocketed theatergoers the best seats for a hefty mark up. On Monday, both shows had top premium tickets of about $200. Even so, The Lion King still commands a higher average ticket price and shows no signs of softening.
vacation rentals hawaii Will it make 25? I don t know, said Freeman, vacation rentals hawaii who admits he never thought rival Phantom would last this long. It holds up pretty well all year long but the times when it is the strongest is the Christmas breaks, the Easter breaks, the Spring breaks vacation rentals hawaii and the summertime.
The two share some attributes: Both have musical giants behind them: Phantom has songs by Lloyd Webber and is directed by Harold Prince, vacation rentals hawaii while The Lion King features music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice and the vision of Taymor.
Both have multiple Tony Awards, movie tie-ins, simple-to-understand stories and are spectacles vacation rentals hawaii important for attracting tourists whose command of English might be weak. Both are not dependent on having stars on stage. And both call home in similar-sized theaters, Phantom at the 1,605-seat Majestic and Lion at the 1,677-seat Minskoff.
The staying power of each is remarkable. Over their first 750 playing weeks which The Lion King has recently reached they ve played to roughly the same number of people: The Lion King at 10,092,235 and Phantom at 9,241,333.
Most shows that have achieved a ripe old age never appear in the top 10 by this point in their ages, but both Lion and Phantom are still routinely among the top earners, week in and week out. On the other side of the ledger, over 500 shows have opened and closed on Broadway during lifetime of The Lion King.
Ginell tips his cap to the new box office king and doesn t see a time soon when it abandons its kingdom. `Lion King is the perfect family musical and I think it always will be as long as expenses don t go so far up that they won t be able to afford to put it on anymore.
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