The Lion King named top-grossing Broadway show of 2013
Published: 17 May 2014 | by BBC
Walt Disney musical The Lion King took nearly $97 million in 2013 and has become Broadway's top-grossing show of 2013.
The hit show has been on Broadway for more that 16 years and is it's all-time highest-earner and became the first Broadway show to pass $1 billion (£605m) in 2013.
Only Chicago, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera have run longer in New York.
The Lion King's success was notable given that there are five bigger theatres on Broadway than the Minskoff Theatre, the show's New York home since 2006.
The stage version of Disney's 1994 film set a theatre record itself last week, having made $2.8m (£1.7m) over its nine performances for the week ending Sunday.
The show has been running in London since 1999 and returned to Sydney earlier this month, having originally played there from 2003 to 2005.
Several other Broadway productions - among them Tony-winner Kinky Boots and the Daniel Craig-Rachel Weisz revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal - finished 2013 with box office records.
According to its producers, the latter show made history last week by having the best single week - $1.4m (£846,700) over nine shows - for a play presented on Broadway.
- BBC