Ticket Prices?
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
Forum Discription: General questions about how to make it work
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2029
Printed Date: 11/22/24 at 12:31pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Ticket Prices?
Posted By: eveharrington
Subject: Ticket Prices?
Date Posted: 9/16/06 at 2:39am
|
One of the groups I work w/ recently took two board meetings to decide we wouldn't be drummed out of town if we raised our ticket prices to TEN (gasp) dollars, yet I've been involved in start-up dinner theater fiascos that sold out two weekends at twenty-five. What would you say is the average ticket price for a volunteer based performance? ------------- "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights." |
Replies:
Posted By: castMe
Date Posted: 9/16/06 at 8:52am
|
Ticket prices, like minimum wage or the cost of gasoline vary widely in
North America. No two cities within the same state, let alone two
different states, are alike. Two of the theaters I work with
charge $12-$10 (adult/ senior-student) for straight shows and $15-$18
for musicals. One of the larger venues jumps their musical tix up
to $18 or $20 as they mount larger productions with a full
orchestra. A different summer theater recently hiked their non-musical
tickets up to $18 !! WOW! Needless to say, not many people I know
attend their shows anymore (the level of talent and production value
varies wildly from show to show, too). They depend mostly on
out-of-state summer vacationers now. Its always hard to figure out how much is fair or reasonable, but I've always felt that charging twice the cost of a local movie ticket is pretty much the max. One can always make the case that live performance (going to the ballpark rather than watching on TV---going to a concert vs. buying the CD, etc) is acceptable and much more enjoyable---therefore worth the dough. Your $10 tickets are a bargain ------------- Investigate. Imagine. Choose. |
Posted By: Linda S
Date Posted: 9/16/06 at 9:38am
|
Two of the theaters I work in have raised their ticket prices in the last few years. The price of fuel oil here in the chilly northeast played a big part in both decisions. That was especially true for the theater that owns their own building. They raised their ticket prices across the board by $3. so ticket prices are now $16 & $14. There is no diffference in price for a musical or non-musical performance. The other theater only raised their ticket prices for adult tickets. The price for student and senior tickets stayed at $8.00. The idea was to encourage families to bring their children to the theater. Tickets for a straight show are $10. and tickets for a musical $12. They budget to break even. On the other hand I just bought tickets for $20 to a musical in neighboring community theater. In contrast I paid $16 for tickets to a professional theater. Linda |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 9/16/06 at 10:36am
|
The prices average around here are $10/$15 AUD [7.52/ [11.23US]. Although we don?t charge a ticket price, as entry is by donation only. Which over 3 seasons [30 performances], has worked out on average of 16/seat. Primarily it is not the price it is sold for, but how much it cost that counts. However this is probably of little interest? ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 9/21/06 at 1:27pm
|
At anywhere from $12 to $20 in my neck of the woods it's a bargain compared to any of the professional resident or road companies. After 15 years of no increase in ticket prices we just raised our regular ticket prices to $ 16 for straight plays and $ 19 for musicals and offer a $3 discount for seniors and students. Heating fuel, electric costs, building security and more recently internet services including our web site have added to the cost of a ticket. Profit margin (if any!) has remained the same and breaking even is good thing (haven't lost money on a show in over 20 years). ------------- BD 
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 9/21/06 at 2:12pm
|
Pretty much the same her in Northwest OHIO.... ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: suzecue1
Date Posted: 9/21/06 at 7:00pm
|
Pretty much the same for us, $10 (for students and seniors) and $12 (for adults) for straight plays and musicals alike. We are in Northern Illinois, about an hour from Chicago. The venue we use (we rent - don't own our own theatre) seats 310. We are lucky with most stage shows to sell 100 tickets per show. Luckily our musicals normally have full houses.
------------- Sue ***** So many hats.....so few heads! |
Posted By: mattyjaco
Date Posted: 9/25/06 at 5:04pm
| we do $10 adults $8 students/seniors |
Posted By: VPA1
Date Posted: 10/22/06 at 2:33am
| Alaska may not be much of a comparision, but at our 172 seat theater, we charge $16/14 for straight plays and $18/20 for musicals. That may vary slightly depending upon the duration of the show and high/low royalties, but this is pretty standard for us. |
Posted By: terrys
Date Posted: 1/19/07 at 5:44am
|
Here in Collingswood, NJ we have the luxury of having several sites available for shows depending on the size. We have the Ballroom of our Community Center which seats about 100, the Grand Ballroom in our Theatre, which seats about 200 and the actual Theatre with seating for 1,050. Our ticket prices are standard for most shows (shows for children are usually less) - $12 adults; $7 students and seniors. We do offer a discount for groups of 15 or more reserved a week or more in advance. Those ticket prices are $10 adults; $5 students and seniors. Our Senior Citizens usually take advantage of the group rates and enjoy every show.
------------- Terry Collingswood Community Theatre |
Posted By: teridtiger
Date Posted: 1/21/07 at 3:05pm
|
Here in Southern California (Chula Vista - south of San Diego, north of Tijuana), our prices are $15 for general admission, $13 for students/seniors/military and $20 for musicals (no discount on those). We are a 60 seat theatre and do five-weekend runs (Thurs-Sun). Our prices are comparable to the other community/smaller thatres in town. Of course, we have to compete with The Old Glogbe, La Jolla Playhouse and a ton of thriving "professional" San Diego downtown theatres. |
Posted By: Kibitzer
Date Posted: 2/06/07 at 9:19pm
|
Pricing can be tricky business. It's not so much what's happening around the world, the country, or, depending upon size, the state. It's what the market will bear and, more specifically, it's what your theatre's market (i.e., audience) will bear. In one theatre I was involved with, when we raised ticket prices a couple of dollars, there was no noticable impact on sales. However, at another theatre in a very different part of the country, but still only a couple of hours away, when ticket prices were raised by just a dollar, there were people squawking all over the place! There is a general rule of thumb: if you raise prices, don't expect to gain much until the following year. In almost any retail business whether it's bus ridership, golf course green's fees, or local theatre tickets, when you raise prices, expect a drop off in purchases. It can often take a season for the market to get used to it and then they'll come back and you will begin to see a slow rise in revenues. In another discussion, we were talking about comp tickets and how one theatre ended up making more when they made all ticket prices by donation! But it can also work the other way. There is the very murky concept of "perceived value". If your prices are cheap, then you must be cheap. There are organizations that flourished after going from very cheap tickets to really expensive tickets. But with it, they increased the experience the customer got, too, and they targeted a whole new audience. These are not tactics for the fainthearted. You can't isolate just price. Put yourself into the audience's shoes for a moment and decide if you're getting more, less, or the same for the money you're spending. Sometimes adding a little something to the experience helps the price increase. Yours always, Kibitzer ------------- "Security is a kind of death." - Tennessee Williams |
Posted By: neilfortin
Date Posted: 5/03/07 at 1:50pm
|
I would out of a company in MA in a small south shore town and we charge 5- for our kids shows (the ones with only kids in them ) usally for a 2 weekend run. And for our adult plays we charge 10 either for a 2 or a 3 weekend run...and for our most current musical (A funny thing happened on the way to the forum) we charged 15 if you got them the night of the show...or 10 if you pre ordered. We sold out a tttee weekend show with 9 performances! ------------- Community Theater makes us smile |
Posted By: BillCVFT
Date Posted: 5/04/07 at 3:33pm
| We are located 20mi SW of Minneapolis, and run usually 10-12 shows over 2 - 3 weekends. We adjust prices, based on the cost of production, anticipated audience mix, etc. We have inched up prices over the years, as quality has impoved and production costs have increased. We recently finished Camelot at $9/$14. This summer, Tom sawyer (musical) will be $8/$12. Straight shows are a bit less. One thing we try to do as an organization is to encourage families to take their children to shows, and so try to keep the student price as low as we can. The other thing we usually do is offer an opening night price at a flat rate that is the same as the student price. So many ticket sales come from word of mouth that we need to do all we can to create a buzz early in our run. We survey audiences at each show, and general the general response is that people find our shows good to excellent value. |
Posted By: Stageman
Date Posted: 5/23/07 at 11:51am
|
I'm glad to see we're in the right ballpark. We're a small town group and always wondering about ticket prices also. We currently charge $10 senior/students and $12 regular for straight shows and $12 & $14 for musicals. However we also have a deal with some local restaurants that you can get $2 off coupons (regular or senior/students) which work really well - it's a great marketing gimmick for us and the restaurants! |