Plays Help West End to Record 2010 Receipts
The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) has today (27 January 2011) released encouraging figures showing Theatreland bucking the wider economic trend, reporting record annual box office receipts. The big winner in this year’s buoyant figures are plays, with revenues up 10% on last year, helping take the West End’s annual receipts over the half a billion pound mark for the second time.
Plays have faired particularly well, with attendances rising 2% year on year. The bump builds on the huge success of 2009 where successes such as Enron and Jerusalem and Waiting for Godot saw figures rise an incredible 26% on 2008.
Although not generated by a dramatic rise in attendance, SOLT today said revenue from play audiences rose 10% to £107,099,335 showing theatregoers – attracted by hits such as All My Sons and National Theatre juggernaut War Horse – have been willing to pay top prices for West End plays, an area which often sees quick price erosion and deep discounting.
Total West End attendances did see a fractional dip, with 14,152,230 trips to the theatre down 0.79% on the previous year. In a statement SOLT said London theatre was “inevitably hit by the poor weather towards the end of the year”, with the number of theatregoers attending plays, musicals, opera and dance in the capital still topping 14 million for only the second time.
Figures were strong in SOLT’s combined opera, dance and entertainments categories with both attendances and revenues rising 3% on last year’s figures. Numbers released for musical attendances show a drop of 3% overall, with box office takings cushioned to a 1% fall.
Commenting on today’s results, SOLT president and West End theatre producer and owner Nica Burns said: “Despite economic woes, volcanic ash, and huge transport disruption notably during our busiest time of the year at Christmas, we have managed our seventh successive year of growth at the box office. A huge range of superb productions ensured that a visit to the theatre was a must-do for large numbers of the public.”
SOLT chief executive Julian Bird added: “People have voted with their feet again by flocking to London’s theatres. Our customers experience the huge variety of shows that we stage each year, and in these difficult economic times are enjoying the theatre just as much. 2011 promises to be another exciting year for theatre and we look forward to entertaining people again.”
The theatre spend also represents more than £76.3 million in VAT receipts for the government. Theatre has bucked a trend of economic gloom with an estimated 0.5% contraction in the UK economy in the final quarter of 2010 recently announced. Today’s SOLT release states the results “reflect the vibrancy of London’s unique mix of commercial and subsidised theatre, as well as ongoing industry investment in new people and product.”
