Broadway Grosses: Summertime & Broadway is Busy! The Great White Way Celebrates Its Best Ever Attended Memorial Day Week

With Memorial Day Weekend, the Great White Way has officially begun welcoming summer crowds and box offices are off to a great start this season. In fact, this Memorial Day week was both the highest grossing and best attended in recorded Broadway history. 11 shows were part of the millionaire's club, with The Lion King leading the pack (breaking the $2 million mark). Usual suspects Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Kinky Boots and Aladdin rounded out the top five. And at the grand old age of 26, The Phantom of the Opera made it into the top five shows by capacity. Those Fleet Week sailors must be Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess fans.

Here’s a look at who was on top—and who was not—for the week ending May 25:

FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)
1. The Lion King ($2,006,651)
2. Wicked ($1,881,975)
3. The Book of Mormon ($1,734,588)
4. Kinky Boots ($1,545,334)
5. Aladdin ($1,207,953)

UNDERDOGS (By Gross)
5. Act One ($458,136) 
4. Violet ($408,945) 
3. Rock of Ages ($326,452)
2. Casa Valentina ($277,233)
1. Mothers and Sons ($198,844)

FRONTRUNNERS (By Capacity)
1. The Book of Mormon(102.63%)
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (102.28%)*
3. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (101.20%)
4. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (100.43%)
5. The Phantom of the Opera (100.41%)

UNDERDOGS (By Capacity)
5. The Cripple of Inishmaan (80.04%)
4. Bullets Over Broadway (77.38%)
3. Rocky (73.04%)
2. Act One (72.50%)
1. Mothers and Sons (47.76%)

*Number based on 7 regular performances

Source: The Broadway League