Society of London Theatre Announces Eighth Consecutive Record Year Of Sales

By: Jan. 31, 2012
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The Society of London Theatre's 2011 Box Office figures, published today (31 January 2012), show that for the eighth year running, its members' Box Office revenues achieved new record sales of £528,375,874, up 3.1% on a like-for-like basis on 2010 and topping £500 million for the third time ever. 

In addition, London theatre ticket sales generated VAT receipts for the Treasury of £88,062,646.

The growth can in part be attributed to sell-out productions such as the new musical Matilda The Musical and the continued success of Les Misérables in its 26th year, as well as the remarkable success of plays in 2011 (revenue up 10% on 2010) including Frankenstein, Much Ado About Nothing, Noises Off, One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard III, War Horse and Jerusalem which had audiences queuing around the block.

2011 saw several of the bigger London venues welcome major new productions such as The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium), Shrek The Musical (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Ghost The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre), Rock of Ages(Shaftesbury Theatre) and Matilda The Musical (Cambridge Theatre). This meant several weeks when the theatres were closed to the public whilst installation of these new shows took place leading to an unusually high number of dark weeks (146 in commercial venues, up from 85 in 2010). As a result the overall attendance in the West End (13,915,185) was slightly down compared to 2010, but the average attendance at each performance was up. 

Mark Rubinstein, President of the Society of London Theatre, said: "We are extremely proud that our theatres have yet again gone on to achieve another record-breaking year of sales, with many shows announcing record-breaking runs of their own. Despite the prevailing rigours of the economic climate, theatre-goers have acted with their feet and wallets and shown just how much they value a trip to one of our world-class shows. We can confirm buoyant Box Office advances for 2012, a year in which we look forward to welcoming millions more national and international visitors through our theatre doors."



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