PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Screening Earns Over £500,000 in the UK This Weekend

This past weekend, Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE ROYAL Albert Hall celebrated its 25th Anniversary. The cast featured Hadley Fraser as ‘Raoul', Kiera Duffy as ‘Carlotta', Sergei Polunin as ‘Slave Master' and Daisy Maywood as ‘Meg Giry', Ramin Karimloo as ‘The Phantom', Sierra Boggess as ‘Christine', Barry James as ‘Monsieur Firmin', Gareth Snook as ‘Monsieur André', Liz Robertson as ‘Madame Giry' and Wynne Evans as ‘Piangi', together with a cast and orchestra of over 200 and some special guest appearances by original cast members including Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman and Phantom alumni from Colm Wilkinson to Anthony Warlow.

Presented by NCM Fathom and Omniverse Vision, a fully staged THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE ROYAL Albert Hall event is being broadcast to select theaters for an exclusive four-night run beginning with the LIVE broadcast on Sunday, October 2 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT; followed by pre-recorded broadcasts on Wednesday, October 5; Thursday, October 6 and one final encore on Tuesday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m. local time. Visit www.FathomEvents.com for screenings in your area!

The first box office numbers are in and, according to the UK Film Council, The Phantom of the Opera screenings took in £550,955 over the weekend alone.  Final tallies for the addition screenings should be in by the end of the week.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AT THE ROYAL Albert Hall was directed by Laurence Connor with Musical Staging and Choreography by Gillian Lynne. The Royal Albert Hall was transformed with a spectacular and unique design by Matt Kinley inspired by Maria Björnson's original design. Lighting is by Patrick Woodroffe and Andrew Bridge and Sound by Mick Potter. The original London production was directed by Hal Prince.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA became the longest running show in Broadway history on 9 January 2006 when it celebrated its 7,486th performance, surpassing the previous record holder "Cats". This coincided with the Broadway and the US national touring company celebrating an unprecedented 20,000 performances in the United States. In October 2010 the London production celebrated its 10,000th performance.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has won over 60 major theatre awards, including seven Tonys on Broadway and three Olivier Awards in the West End. It won the ‘Most Popular Musical Audience Award', voted by the public, in the 2002 Laurence Olivier Awards. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, which opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on 9 October 1986 starred Michael Crawford as 'The Phantom' and Sarah Brightman as 'Christine.' It is produced by Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Theatre Company Limited.

Worldwide, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has grossed over £3.2 billion. The box office revenues are higher than any film or stage play in history, including "Titanic", "ET", "Star Wars" and "Avatar". It has been seen in 145 cities in 27 countries and played to over 130 million people. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is currently showing in London, New York, Budapest, Las Vegas, and Kyoto.

CLICK HERE for BroadwayWorld's coverage from London for the big weekend!