economy and ticket sales
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Money Talk
Forum Discription: Questions about fundraising and promotion
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3805
Printed Date: 11/22/24 at 1:01am
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Topic: economy and ticket sales
Posted By: VPA1
Subject: economy and ticket sales
Date Posted: 2/06/09 at 2:08am
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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Replies:
Posted By: Nanette
Date 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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Posted By: dboris
Date 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:
http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/583226 - http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/583226
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 2/06/09 at 12:53pm
Originally posted by VPA1
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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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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Posted By: vickifrank
Date 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.
Like it or not community theater is in this downturn right along with the communities that we serve. Why not be the bright spot?
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The theater scrim people
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date 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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Posted By: SpenceKenzer
Date Posted: 2/24/09 at 3:04pm
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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Posted By: janetk
Date 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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Posted By: jayzehr
Date 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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Posted By: dramacorrect
Date 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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Posted By: 75director
Date Posted: 3/10/09 at 2:13pm
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So far this season our overall attendance numbers are identical to last year at this time. The only show we've seen a drop in attendance at so far is our holiday production, which didn't include 30 kids, like it did the year before, so that's where the drop came from IMO. Otherwise we've been at or above last year's attendance for the rest of the season.
It does help that we just installed new seats in our auditorium and we know that drew some past patrons back this season. Looking ahead, however, I am concerned about next season if the non-stop news of doom and gloom persists it will probably start effecting our numbers more. It has certainly effected our corporate sponsors and program advertisers.
Of course Hollywood is seeing record numbers at the movies, perhaps, as Vicki pointed out in her post, our live theatres can offer that escapism people are finding at the movies, but also play up the fact it's local people doing things to make their communities better. Now if only someone would come up with a great way to deliver that message, they'd have a special place in all our greenrooms.
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Posted By: dramacorrect
Date Posted: 4/25/09 at 10:03pm
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Update to my previous post. Turns out that even with attendance down, we net more than our other two shows on that production of Taffetas. Overall, we're not doing too badly on our shows this year.
We just did a serious well-known drama, but still, drama--heavy subject matter. It sold great. Here's what's keeping things going here:
People will come to large-cast shows. Well known shows got our season ticket sales back up this year too. Now if I can talk our management into cutting back on some rediculous spending, we'd be ok.
People don't like bad sound. I've had people stop me on the street to tell me they can't hear this person or that person, and why don't we mic everyone? Because it's incredibly expensive. But that will keep people away.
Simplistic, but that's the feedback I have right now.
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Community Theatre Fundraising
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Posted By: doubleirish
Date Posted: 5/03/09 at 1:03am
We did James And The Giant Peach in March and were very pleased with the turnout. Our fall play, Wait Until Dark didn't get coverage in the local paper until the last weekend, so sales were poor. Plus, people like comedies more than the thrillers, etc.
We hadn't done a children's show in a couple of years, but the parents of the cast were really pleased with the production and there was a lot of great buzz around town, so I suspect that was why we did so well. Plus it was a fun play. As a result, we've decided to do a children's show every year.
We thought the economy would be a problem for us, but I think we had the right play at the right time.
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 5/03/09 at 4:30am
Originally posted by dramacorrect
People will come to large-cast shows. |
Yep. The more people in the cast, the more friends and family buying tickets and the more word of mouth. SImple but true. You like to think that people are coming because of the quality of the show, etc. but that's not always the case.
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Posted By: dramacorrect
Date Posted: 5/04/09 at 10:48am
Originally posted by jayzehr
You like to think that people are coming because of the quality of the show, etc. but that's not always the case. |
I don't know that they're not, I think that sometimes just the added pressure of knowing someone gets them to come. I love theatre, and so does my DH, but there's a lot of times even I don't feel like going to the show for whatever reason.
I think in our community we have an advantage because we're a bigger small town (12,000) and if we have a minister or a city manager or a teacher in the show, it sparks a lot of extra interest.
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Community Theatre Fundraising
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Posted By: kiwiholly
Date Posted: 5/04/09 at 9:24pm
I'll be finding this out soon too, since we're opening Oliver Twist on Friday. Thankfully there are a TON of kids (and families) in the cast, who are all selling tickets to their friends, so HOPEFULLY we should be ok.
I agree with dramacorrect too, about having a well-known community figure in the cast, lol. There are a couple of teachers in ours who have been adding "Featuring Mrs. *name* as Nancy!" to the bottoms of the posters they're putting up at school. :P
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Posted By: teejaystudio
Date Posted: 9/28/09 at 9:37am
Originally posted by SpenceKenzer
Our CT started using a computerized box office ticketing system in 2002.
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Which system do you use and how would you rate it on costs on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very economical) and benefits/customization (10 being very robust)?
Thanks.
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Posted By: SpenceKenzer
Date Posted: 9/28/09 at 8:46pm
Originally posted by teejaystudio
Originally posted by SpenceKenzer
Our CT started using a computerized box office ticketing system in 2002.
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Which system do you use and how would you rate it on costs on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very economical) and benefits/customization (10 being very robust)?
Thanks.
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The only box office computer system I've ever used is called Box Office for Windows.
You can find it at this website: http://www.boxpro.com/index.html
It is one of if not the least expensive system available; our theater is a non-profit building for community groups; they have very little money to spend on frivols and extras, so in 2002 they went with this software.
I have no basis for comparison, since I've never used any other software for this. I like this software; it does what my CT needs, as long as you know how to deal with it.
I hope this information helps.
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Saludos, my dahlinks, and you know who you are ... !
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