The Phantom of the Opera's record-setting run: By the numbers

Most Broadway productions are lucky to run for a year. On Saturday, The Phantom of the Opera celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance, setting a record as the longest-running show ever on the Great White Way. Not only that, the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical is still among Broadway's top earners. Here, a look at its blockbuster run, by the numbers:

10,000

Record number of performances clocked by the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera. It opened in New York on Jan. 26, 1988.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

24

Years Phantom has been on Broadway

7,485

Performances delivered by the cast of Cats, the second longest-running musical ever on Broadway

6,328

Performances delivered by the cast of Chicago, the second longest-running musical currently on Broadway

$8 million

Original cost of the Phantom production

$835 million

Amount the show has earned over its 10,000 performances

$44.8 million

Phantom's gross last year, its best annual tally ever

$1,579,428

Phantom's gross during a week last December, its highest weekly gross ever

27

Countries that have staged a production

145

Cities in which the show has played

$5.6 billion

Phantom's worldwide gross

40

Percent of Phantom's New York audience on any given night who has seen the show at least once before

68

Percent of audience who are women

60

Percent of audience who are tourists

7

Tony Awards won by Phantom in 1988, including Best Musical, Best Director (Harold Prince), and Best Actor (Michael Crawford). The show received 10 nominations total.

12

Actors have played the title role of the Phantom on Broadway

9,328

Phantom performances given by actor George Lee Andrews, the Guinness World Record holder for the most performances in the same Broadway show. He had been with the show for 23 years, playing the featured role of Monsieur Andrew.

4

Times a year that 84-year-old Harold Prince, who won a Tony Award for directing Phantom, says he returns to the Broadway production to give notes

1

Sequel spawned by The Phantom of the Opera. Love Never Dies opened last year in London's West End, to mostly negative reviews.

Sources: AP, IBDB (2,3), NY Times (2), Telegraph