The Accidental Blockbuster

“‘Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre,’ the new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, is showing signs of turning into an unexpected blockbuster. About 20,000 people saw the show in the eight days after it opened on July 16… Ticket sales leveled off in the second week, but by the end of the week, about 27,600 people had seen ‘Toulouse-Lautrec’… Box office is so boffo that Art Institute officials are entertaining the possibility that [the show] could substantially exceed its projected attendance of 250,000.”