THE LION KING Breaks Box Office Records Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Finishing up the third week of a 4-week engagement, Disney's THE LION KING has already broken box office records previously held for touring theatre in Vancouver. The British Columbia premiere engagement is now playing through August 8, 2010 and is averaging $1.8 million Canadian per week. The engagement, which the Vancouver Sun enthused, "is as pure and powerful a piece of theatre as anything ever seen on stage," has already sold more than 80,000 tickets and generated over $7.3 million Canadian at the box office.

Early estimates indicate that the Tony®-Award Winning Musical will bring a $20 million Canadian economic benefit to Vancouver from travel, hotels, restaurants, parking and other businesses patronized by both theatergoers and production staff.

The North American touring production of THE LION KING has been seen by over 12.5 million theatergoers and grossed over $815 million to date. The tour is one of six productions running worldwide, along with New York City, London, Hamburg, Tokyo and Las Vegas. Having already played 60 cities across North America, THE LION KING continues to entertain audiences in new cities. The current schedule is listed below. For more information and dates, please visit LionKing.com.

Vancouver is not the first Canadian city for this tour. Audiences in Alberta were captivated by THE LION KING during the summer of 2009 when the production set new box office records during its engagements in Calgary and Edmonton, grossing a combined total of $13 million and entertaining more than 154,000 guests. Making a major economic impact in the Province of Alberta, it is estimated that theatergoers spent a combined total of $36 million in Calgary and Edmonton during both engagements of THE LION KING.

THE LION KING North American Tour will once again return to Canada in April 2011 at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre. This is the same theatre where the show had its Canadian premiere in April 2000, entertaining 2.9 million theater patrons and playing 1,560 performances (closing in January 2004). Tickets for the 2011 engagement go on sale this November.