Broadway Grosses: Hits Remain Hot; Merchant of Venice Is SRO

Broadway’s box offices took a rather surprising dip in the week leading up to the Thanksgiving influx of visitors to New York City. Almost every show dipped from the previous week, with the usual five $1 million exceptions. In the capacity frontrunners' list, The Merchant of Venice was above 100% in a week in which the show gave five performances. Also in the plus column, Driving Miss Daisy continued to rise (grossing above $727,000 and making the frontrunners' list for capacity) and Elf began what looks to be a steady climb toward a merry Christmas at the box office, jumping more than $250,000 to $862,995 for the week.

Here is a look at who was on top and who was not for the week ending November 21:

FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)
1. Wicked ($1,509,711)
2. The Lion King ($1,331,448)
3. Jersey Boys ($1,068,792)
4. Billy Elliot ($1,042,020)
5. Promises, Promises ($1,006,158)

UNDERDOGS (By Gross)
5. La Bete ($214,454)
4. A Life in the Theatre ($213,364)
3. The Pitmen Painters ($159,562)
2. Elling ($145,070)*
1. Colin Quinn: Long Story Short ($143,902)

FRONTRUNNERS (By Capacity)
1. The Merchant of Venice (102.45%)**
2. Wicked (96.28%)
3. Jersey Boys (92.41%)
4. Driving Miss Daisy (92.29%)
5. Billy Elliot (87.90%)

UNDERDOGS (By Capacity)
5. Million Dollar Quartet (55.24%)
4. Chicago (54.83%)
3. American Idiot (46.07%)
2. La Bete (45.89%)
1. A Life in the Theatre (45.10%)

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