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How The Lion King Dominates Broadway Earnings
As of 2025, The Lion King has earned over $1.8 billion in Broadway ticket sales. Compare other shows to see how much longer they'd need to run to match this record.
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When people ask what the number one Broadway musical of all time is, they’re usually not asking about critical praise or awards. They want to know which show made the most money, drew the biggest crowds, and stayed on stage longer than any other. The answer isn’t close. The Lion King is the highest-grossing Broadway musical in history, and it’s not even a contest.
How The Lion King Became Broadway’s Top Earner
The Lion King opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 13, 1997. It moved to the Minskoff Theatre in 2006, where it still runs today. Over 27 years later, it has played more than 10,500 performances and counting. That’s more than 27 years of sold-out shows, six days a week, with two shows on weekends. No other musical comes close to that kind of consistency.
By 2025, The Lion King had earned over $1.8 billion in Broadway ticket sales alone. That’s not including tours, international productions, or merchandise. For comparison, Les Misérables, which held the record before it, made about $1.1 billion on Broadway. The Phantom of the Opera, the previous long-running champion, earned around $1.3 billion before closing in 2023. The Lion King didn’t just break records-it reset the entire scale of what a musical could earn.
Why It Worked So Well
The success of The Lion King isn’t just about the Disney name. It’s about the way the show turned animation into live theater. Julie Taymor’s direction turned actors into animals using masks, puppets, and costumes that moved like living creatures. The giraffes on stilts, the elephants with hidden riders, the antelope that seemed to leap across the stage-these weren’t just effects. They were storytelling tools that made the audience believe.
The music, by Elton John and Tim Rice, blended African rhythms with Broadway ballads. Songs like ‘Circle of Life,’ ‘Hakuna Matata,’ and ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ became instant classics. But it wasn’t just the songs. The entire production was designed to feel like a ritual, a celebration of nature and family. Parents brought their kids. Grandparents came back for the second time. Tourists made it a must-see stop in New York. It became a tradition, not just a show.
What About Other Contenders?
Some might argue that Phantom of the Opera deserves the title because it ran longer-35 years compared to The Lion King’s 27 so far. But length doesn’t equal earnings. Phantom closed in April 2023 after earning $1.3 billion on Broadway. The Lion King passed that mark in 2016 and kept growing.
Les Misérables had a longer initial run (16 years) and a massive global following, but its Broadway grosses never matched The Lion King’s peak. Wicked, another Disney-backed hit, has earned over $1.1 billion and is still running, but it’s still $700 million behind. Even Hamilton, the cultural phenomenon of the 2010s, made about $800 million total across all its runs-impressive, but less than half of The Lion King’s Broadway haul.
The Lion King also dominates in touring markets. Its national tour has played in over 100 cities across the U.S. and Canada, often selling out for months. International versions in London, Tokyo, Hamburg, and Seoul have added hundreds of millions more. No other musical has replicated that kind of global footprint.
It’s Not Just About Money
Money tells part of the story. But The Lion King’s real power is in its reach. It’s the musical that introduced millions of children to live theater for the first time. It’s the show that made parents willing to pay $200 for tickets because they remembered watching the movie as kids. It’s the production that gave Black and African artists leading roles in a mainstream Broadway show long before diversity became a talking point.
Behind the scenes, the show created jobs for hundreds of puppeteers, costume makers, and musicians trained in African drumming. It helped launch careers for performers who went on to star in other shows. It even inspired school programs that teach theater through African storytelling traditions.
Will It Ever Be Dethroned?
Right now, nothing is even close. Wicked is the only musical that might have a shot in the next 20 years, but it’s still running at about half the pace of The Lion King. New musicals like Hadestown or Six have been popular, but they’re niche hits, not mass-market events. The Lion King benefits from being both timeless and timely-it’s a story about legacy, growth, and belonging that resonates across generations.
Even as streaming and digital entertainment grow, live theater still has one thing no app can replicate: the shared experience of hundreds of people in a dark room, gasping at the same moment, laughing together, crying as a group. The Lion King doesn’t just sell tickets-it creates memories. And that’s why it’s not just the top-grossing musical. It’s the most enduring one.
What Makes a Broadway Musical a Success?
There’s no single formula, but The Lion King shows the pattern: strong source material, unforgettable visuals, emotional music, and broad appeal. It didn’t target just theater fans-it targeted families, tourists, and people who had never been to Broadway before. It made the experience feel accessible, exciting, and special.
Other hits followed similar paths. Hamilton used hip-hop to reach younger audiences. Dear Evan Hansen connected with teens struggling with mental health. But none of them matched The Lion King’s scale. Why? Because it didn’t need to be new or edgy. It just needed to be true.
The story of Simba is simple: a boy loses his father, runs away, finds himself, and returns to lead. That’s the oldest story in human history. And on Broadway, it’s been told better than any other.
Is The Lion King the longest-running Broadway musical?
No, The Lion King is not the longest-running musical on Broadway. That title belongs to The Phantom of the Opera, which ran for 35 years before closing in 2023. The Lion King has been running for over 27 years as of 2025 and is still going strong, but it hasn’t surpassed Phantom’s total years. However, in terms of total earnings, The Lion King is the clear leader.
How much money has The Lion King made on Broadway?
As of 2025, The Lion King has earned over $1.8 billion in ticket sales from its Broadway run alone. That makes it the highest-grossing Broadway musical of all time, far ahead of The Phantom of the Opera ($1.3 billion) and Les Misérables ($1.1 billion). This figure doesn’t include touring productions, international versions, or merchandise sales.
Why did The Lion King make more money than other Disney musicals?
The Lion King made more than other Disney musicals because it appealed to a wider audience. Unlike Frozen or Aladdin, which leaned heavily on younger fans or nostalgia, The Lion King combined stunning visuals, universal themes, and music that worked for both kids and adults. Its stage design was so unique that people came back multiple times just to see how the animals moved. It became a family tradition, not just a show.
What’s the second highest-grossing Broadway musical?
The second highest-grossing Broadway musical is The Phantom of the Opera, with about $1.3 billion in Broadway ticket sales before it closed in 2023. Wicked is currently in third place, with over $1.1 billion in total earnings across its Broadway and touring runs. Both are huge successes, but neither comes close to The Lion King’s $1.8 billion.
Did The Lion King win any Tony Awards?
Yes, The Lion King won six Tony Awards in 1998, including Best Musical, Best Direction (Julie Taymor), and Best Costume Design. It was nominated for 11 total, the most of any show that year. Julie Taymor became the first woman to win Best Direction for a Musical. The awards helped cement its reputation as a groundbreaking production, not just a commercial hit.
What’s Next for Broadway Musicals?
As streaming services and AI-generated content grow, live theater could feel outdated. But The Lion King proves that people still crave real, shared experiences. You can’t pause a lion rising from the dust. You can’t rewind the moment a child sees a giraffe walk across the stage for the first time.
The future of Broadway isn’t about bigger budgets or flashier tech. It’s about stories that connect across age, culture, and language. The Lion King didn’t win because it was the most expensive or the most talked-about. It won because it made people feel something real-and kept making them feel it, night after night, for nearly three decades.
