London theatres celebrated a rise in both attendance and ticket revenue in 2012 despite “exceptional challenges”, the Society of London Theatre has announced today as the organisation published its annual Box Office figures.
2012 saw gross ticket sales of £529,787,692, up 0.27% from 2011, with an incredible 13,992,773 people visiting the theatre, demonstrating the huge popularity of the West End during a year which saw continued economic struggles and Olympic fever take over the country for the month of August.
While sales and attendances were down during the summer Olympic weeks due to venues closing for major events including the opening and closing ceremonies and fewer performances playing during the period, the robust 2012 figures highlights a hugely successful year for London theatre including a particularly strong first half of the year and good sales during autumn.
With a record-breaking 305 new productions opening in 2012, amongst the attractions drawing people from around the world to London’s famous West End theatres were productions of new musicals including Top Hat and The Bodyguard, and the continued success of long-running popular shows. But while musicals accounted for 7,970,042 attendances, 2012 was the year of the play with attendances up 9%.
The opening of the Michael Grandage Company premiere season, Royal Court theatre transfers of Posh, Jumpy and Constellations, and the opportunity to see Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry star in Twelfth Night were just some of the play highlights on offer in 2012 which might account for this substantial rise. The figures also reflect healthy advanced sales throughout the final quarter for the exciting selection of highly anticipated shows set to open this year.
Mark Rubinstein, President of SOLT, said: “I am delighted that for the ninth year running we are able to report year-on-year growth in ticket income for London Theatres. It is particularly astonishing that we are able to report increasing sales – of over half a billion pounds – for a year that we always knew would have exceptional challenges.”
Acknowledging the difficulties theatre and the entire country faced in 2012, Rubinstein commented: ” Against the background of a tough economic climate, London theatre continues to buck the trend, offering dazzling, world-class entertainment, which has audiences from both home and abroad flocking to the West End to catch exciting new productions as well as much-loved long running favourites. With the combined box office advance sales breaking new records we are looking forward to another year of success stories for our theatres.”
SOLT’s box office figures are compiled on behalf of the industry and relate to 52 major theatres, both commercial and grant-aided, in central London.