cumulative gross of over $75 million. While the Broadway production of Wicked welcomed its 5 millionth audience member on September 29, 2010. International productions of Wicked have matched the extremely positive reception at the box-office. Although West End theatres do not publish audited weekly grosses, the West End production of Wicked claimed to take the record for highest one-week gross in December 2006, taking £761,000 in the week ending December 30. On June 23, 2008, the producers reported that over 1.4 million people had seen the London production since its opening, and grosses had topped £50 million; The same reports stated that the show has consistently been one of the two highest-grossing shows in the West End. For the week commencing December 27, 2010, the London production grossed £1,002,885, the highest single-week gross in West End theatre history, with over 20,000 theatregoers attending the nine performances of Wicked that week. The Melbourne production broke Australian box-office records, selling 24,750 tickets in three hours during pre-sales and grossing over $1.3 million on the first business day after its official opening. On April 27, 2009, the production passed the milestone of 500,000 patrons. When it transferred to Sydney, the production broke "all previous weekly box office records for a musical at the Capitol Theatre, grossing $1,473,775.70 in one week during October 2009. In the week ending October 17, 2010, Wicked became only the third musical in Broadway history to exceed $500 million in total gross. By seats sold on Broadway, it ranks tenth of all time. As of September 2011, Wicked North American and international companies have cumulatively grossed nearly $2.5 billion and have been seen by nearly 30 million people worldwide. The original production still runs today and currently stands as the fifth longest-running Broadway show in history."Longest Runs on Broadway". Playbill. August 14, 2011. Wicked celebrated its 1,000th performance on Broadway on March 23, 2006. Several other productions have also reached the 1,000th performance milestone, including the first North American touring company on August 15, 2007, the Chicago company on November 14, 2007, the West End company on February 14, 2009, the Australian company on May 7, 2011 and the second North American touring company on August 4, 2011. Marketing and promotion The success of the Broadway production has led to the development of an auxiliary show for purposes of marketing and promotion titled Behind the Emerald Curtain. It was