The MET Opera Hits Box Office Goal Of 88% For 2008-2009 Season

With three sold-out performances remaining in its 125th anniversary season, the Metropolitan Opera has hit its original box office projection for this season, selling 87.9% of paid capacity for the 33-week season of performances. In addition, ticket sales to The Met: Live in HD, the company's live, high-definition transmissions into movie theaters and other venues in 36 countries around the world, surged to 1.6 million, an increase of 43% over the previous year.

Met General Manager Peter Gelb said, "Although the economy has taken its toll, the public's interest in the Met continues to grow, providing us with hope for the future."

After six years of steadily declining ticket sales, the Met's box office dropped to 76.8% for the 2005-06 season. But as a result of new artistic and public initiatives, the Met has experienced dramatic increases at the box office. Many recent productions - including new stagings of La Sonnambula and Il Trovatore and the final presentation of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, conducted by Music Director James Levine - have enjoyed strong sales. These positive box office results, along with an innovative ticket program funded by the Met's Board of Directors to make affordable tickets available to the general public, enabled the Met to reach its original box office goal.

Sales for the Peabody Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series saw an even more dramatic increase this season, its third year. With the final transmission of Rossini's La Cenerentola to come tomorrow, more than 1.6 million tickets have been sold to date for the 11-opera series (as compared to the previous season's 8 transmissions, which sold approximately 935,000 tickets). This sharp rise in sales is due in part to the increased number of venues screening the live transmissions in an ever-larger number of countries around the world. The Met: Live in HD is now shown in 868 venues in 36 countries, up from 632 venues in 19 countries in the previous season. These numbers include both the live and subsequent "encore" showings in some venues.

The Met: Live in HD is made possible by a generous grant from the Neubauer Family Foundation. The series is produced in association with PBS and WNET.org.

 

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