There is a new king on Broadway! As of Monday, April 9, box office figures showed "The Lion King" overtaking the title of all-time highest grossing show, previously held by "The Phantom of the Opera."
Figures show that the cumulative gross for "The Lion King" is $853,846,062, surpassing their rival at $853,122,847 by grossing over $2 million just the week before, while "Phantom" only netted about $1.2 million.

What makes "Lion King’s" lead all the more exciting is that "Phantom" has almost a 10-year head start. It opened in January 1988, while "Lion King" opened in November 1997. "Phantom's" success is not to be overlooked, however. The show is currently in its twenty-fourth year, serving as the longest-running show in Broadway history, according to the Wall Street Journal. It has had more than 10,000 performances, and sold many more tickets than "The Lion King" at 14.8 million.

By Stacey Willets

When hundreds of people lined up outside a box office in Pittsburgh this week, it wasn’t for Hannah Montana tickets. Ticket buyers were trying to get their seats for Lion King, also a Disney production, before tickets were available for sale online. Between the ticket explosion in Pittsburgh and a strong week for the Dallas production, Lion King moves into the Overall Top Events at number five.

The NFL presence in the Top Events rankings is halved by the return of Major League Baseball. The Dallas Cowboys move up to number four and the Green Bay Packers drop five spots to number ten. The New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers are booted this week in favor of the ninth-ranked New York Yankees and sixth-ranked Colorado Rockies, two playoff teams on very different paths. The Yanks were eliminated in round one of postseason play for the third straight year, while the Rockies are competing in the National League Championship Series for the first time in franchise history.