Broadway Grosses: Oprah Pushes Purple's Button

Can the powerful Oprah Winfrey make her first Broadway producing venture a hit? After another appearance on the media mogul's popular TV talk show, The Color Purple is nearly filling the large Broadway Theatre at every performance with an average capacity of 96.78%, and is up by $123, 378 from the previous week, bringing this past week's grosses to $992,497. By contrast, other heavy-hitters such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Light in the Piazza and The Woman in White each dropped by over $100,000 from the previous week.

Here is a look at who was on top and who was not for the week ending December 18:

FRONTRUNNERS By Gross
1. Wicked $1,350,164
2. The Lion King $1,185,870
3. Spamalot $1,087,996
4. Mamma Mia! $1,011,549
5. The Color Purple $992,497

UNDERDOGS By Gross
5. A Touch of the Poet $290,264
4. Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life $260,813
3. Seascape $151,327
2. Souvenir $79,992
1. Latinologues $59,708

FRONTRUNNERS By Capacity
1. Spamalot 101.68%
2. The Odd Couple 101.11%
3. Wicked 100%
4. Mamma Mia! 97.81%
5. The Lion King 97.31%

UNDERDOGS By Capacity
5. Sea Scape 58.68%
4. Fiddler on the Roof 54.72%
3. Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life 52.02%
2. Souvenir 35.52%
1. Latinologues 30.62%

Data provided by The League of American Theatres and Producers.