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| Money Talk | |
 Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Theater Administration :Money Talk |
 Topic: economy and ticket sales( Topic Closed) |
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VPA1
Star 
Joined: 10/20/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 54 |
 Topic: economy and ticket salesPosted: 2/06/09 at 2:08am |
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Just outta curiosity, are any of you experiencing a significant drop in ticket sales? We just produced THE SPITFIRE GRILL to 100% rave reviews, yet it is selling poorly. Quite unexpected. Very disappointing.
Anyone out there think the rotten economy is causing this? Thanks for responding! |
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Nanette
Celebrity 
Joined: 8/01/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 399 |
Posted: 2/06/09 at 9:59am |
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As I posted elsewhere, I expect ticket sales to be WAY down for our upcoming production of 'Snow White'. We're not in this to make money; just cover expenses. We're in this to give the children in our community something positive to do.
We are considering offering reduced-price tickets in exchange for donations to the local food pantry. It won't be "bring in a can, get in free", however, but perhaps $1 off for a couple of cans brought in. That way we all win ... the food pantry (and the majority of the people in the community since most have been laid off recently ~ unfortunately) and the troupe.
Professional companies are also feeling the pinch. There was a story on CNN recently about big shows on Broadway closing soon because sales are down.
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In a world of margarine, be butter!
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dboris
Celebrity
Joined: 2/10/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 124 |
Posted: 2/06/09 at 12:51pm |
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Yes, the group I work with is having hard times also.
What's interesting is that this January actually set a record for movie ticket sales. Attendance was up 16% as compare to January 2007. There is an article here that discusses this and the possible reasons:
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jayzehr
Celebrity
Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537 |
Posted: 2/06/09 at 12:53pm |
Oh, man. I guess I'll find out shortly. We're about to open with a very intense original adaptation of a Stephen Crane short story which is out of the norm for us lately. I was a little concerned about ticket sales and I hadn't even thought about the economy. But we did well with "Almost, Maine" in November, however. |
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vickifrank
Celebrity
Joined: 9/21/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 332 |
Posted: 2/06/09 at 2:20pm |
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Take heart. Putting a marketing hat on, there is a way to benefit from this downturn. Remember many times community theater is a cheap date--frequently cheaper than movies. Movies do relatively well during down times because they are considered cheap dates. The key is to play up that aspect.
Community theater is also a way to forget the depressing news--and revel in something positive in your community. Choose shows that help raise spirits or take people away from it all. You will then be offering a much needed service to your community. Consider also partnerships that boost both parties' sales. Perhaps dinner with theater is a cheap package for valentine's day or a cure for winter blues (I'm in the midwest, its all grey skies and snow these days!).
The one thing that you don't want to do is cut costs by taking marketing out of the budget. This is a time to get people to think about you. This is a time to market like crazy. Maybe even market yourselves to local business as a cheap reward for employees. Little businesses are struggling to find ways to soften the current hard edges of business--like less overtime. A few tickets are a great inexpensive way to still say thank you and reduce fear. You might find that the 'boss' buys such a thing out of his own pocket as a way to show his personal appreciation.
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http://www.studio-productions-inc.com 1-800-359-2964 The theater scrim people |
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jayzehr
Celebrity
Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537 |
Posted: 2/21/09 at 2:48pm |
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Well, we've been open three days now with our current production and the houses have been very small. Don't know how much is the economy and how much is other variables but it doesn't feel very good...
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SpenceKenzer
Star
Joined: 1/23/09 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 71 |
Posted: 2/24/09 at 3:04pm |
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Our CT started using a computerized box office ticketing system in 2002, so we've had very accurate records since then showing us a steady decline in ticket sales and attendance since then. Every year. *sigh*
We know that 60 to 67 percent of our audience are "seniors", aged 55 or older. Perhaps they're no longer attending due to age, infirmity, or death. We know that a drama means a 10 to 20 percent reduction in attendance, and our audiences consistently request more comedies. We know that if we present a play that is not well known, or new, or has a non-evocative title, our attendance will be only average at best. On the other hand, classics and 'big name' plays seem always to do well (like "Arsenic and Old Lace" and even "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Dracula".) My guess is that SOME of the decline in audience numbers is due to the poor economy, but our CT has been experiencing that decline since well before the current economic crises. One of our frustrations is: we've been an active CT continuously since 1926, and yet in our 83rd season (this year) we still encounter people in the city who've never ever even heard of us. We're striking a "marketing into the future" committee to see what more we can due to spark interest, increase visibility & recognizability, and hopefully get more (and slightly younger) bums in seats. The committee will LOVE to hear some of the ideas given here. |
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Saludos, my dahlinks, and you know who you are ... ! |
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janetk
Player 
Joined: 11/15/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 23 |
Posted: 2/24/09 at 3:18pm |
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I guess we have been very lucky. We are in production of "Kitchen Witches" and we run for 3 weekends including Thursdays on the 2nd and 3rd. We were basically sold out before we opened. As usually there is always one or two seats vacant. We have a lot of community support and we have not seen a decrease in ticket sales. |
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jayzehr
Celebrity
Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537 |
Posted: 2/25/09 at 7:26am |
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Well, our weekend picked up considerably and if we do the same this week we'll be in the black on this show. Which would be pretty good after all for an original drama.
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dramacorrect
Lead 
Joined: 3/09/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 33 |
Posted: 3/09/09 at 9:20pm |
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We just did a revival of a VERY popular show we did last year. We added 2 performances to our regular 8 and sold out all of them and still had over 300 people on a waiting list to get more tickets. The revival was for a special event in another town, but we did a show in our town and sold just under 600 tickets. Not bad, but not what I was expecting. Then we did Taffeta's, which was exactly the type of show we would normally do really well with, and we sold at maybe 70%. We had saturday nights that weren't even half full. Rave reviews, poor sales.
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