Broadway Grosses: Halloween Revelry Pushes Box Office Down; Daisy and Merchant Strong

With Halloween falling on Sunday, Broadway’s four--performance weekend felt the hit: Almost every show experienced a drop at the box office from the previous week. A couple of new entries bucked the trend: Al Pacino’s Merchant of Venice made both frontrunners’ lists while doing sellout business at the Broadhurst Theatre, and Lombardi added almost $100,000 to its weekly coffers for a total of $290,188. Driving Miss Daisy's overall take dropped slightly, but the show remained in the top five for capacity at the Golden Theatre with more than 95%. Over at the newly christened Stephen Sondheim Theatre, The Pee-Wee Herman Show played its first eight previews, taking in $608,450 for a healthy start.

Here is a look at who was on top and who was not for the week ending October 31:

FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)
1. Wicked ($1,541,013)
2. The Lion King ($1,259,380)
3. The Merchant of Venice ($1,071,949)*
4. Jersey Boys ($1,011,799)
5. Billy Elliot ($959,364)

UNDERDOGS (By Gross)
5. The Scottsboro Boys ($220,818)**
4. The Pitmen Painters ($220,649)
3. A Life in the Theatre ($218,150)
2. Next to Normal ($206,297)
1. Colin Quinn: Long Story Short ($81,219)***

FRONTRUNNERS (By Capacity)
1. Wicked (100%)
2. The Merchant of Venice (99.24%)*
3. Jersey Boys (95.68%)
4. Driving Miss Daisy (95.16%)
5. Billy Elliot (91.93%)

UNDERDOGS (By Capacity)
5. La Bete (52.83%)
4. Million Dollar Quartet (50.76%)
3. American Idiot (43.04%)
2. A Life in the Theatre (39.33%)
1. Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (28.53%)***

*Number based on seven preview performances.
**Number based on seven previews and one regular performance.
***Number based on eight preview performances.
Data provided by the Broadway League.