The Off-Broadway Alliance released the first-ever annual revenue statistics for Manhattan commercial and not-for-profit theatres seating between 100 and 499 people. During the 2007-2008 season, 5.47 million tickets were sold at off-Broadway venues, worth $173 million.
In that same season, Broadway sold 12.27 million tickets for $938 million. Although off-Broadway cannot compare with those figures, the Alliance notes off-Broadway audiences are greater than those of a number of important NYC tourist destinations, including the Empire State Building (about 3.7 million), Coney Island (3.5 million), and the Statue of Liberty (4.2 million).
Note that these statistics allow the average paid ticket price of Broadway and off-Broadway to be compared, i. e. $76.45 for Broadway and $31.63 for off-Broadway.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Why a Good Theatre Died
Two days ago, the Boston Globe published an interesting article about the demise of the North Shore Music Theatre. Founded in 1954, NSMT was a not-for-profit theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts, 17 miles northeast of Boston, that had yearly attendance before closing of over 350,000. According to the most recent IRS filing available (2006-2007), NSMT had a yearly budget of about $13.25 million. It owned an usual physical venue for producing musicals, a 1,700 seat theatre-in-the-round. NSMT closed this month after raising only $500,000 of a needed $2 million to continue into its next season.
The Globe article notes recriminations in the wake of the closing, many aimed at the new director of the theatre, Barry Ivan, who took over in 2008. But before that, the organization was in trouble. A fire in 2005 was covered by insurance but the board decided to make improvements as well which cost an additional $1.5 million. While the theatre was under reconstruction, productions moved to Boston's downtown Shubert Theatre. Lost income from this period totalled another $1.5 million.
Most tellingly, NSMT had no endowment. Endowments and retained surpluses are essential if not-for-profit theatres are to survive unanticipated losses. The last three years saw budgeting shortfalls: $492,184 in 2005, $107,856 in 2006, and $621,240 in 2007. Without an endowment, the board borrowed money to bridge the organization's needs, resulting in total liabilities of $4.6 million. With a physical theatre estimated to be worth about $4.9 million, banks were unwilling to loan NSMT more money.
NSMT was supported by its community. A 2007 production of Disney's High School Musical was its highest grossing show ever. Its last production, Show Boat, won the local critics award as best musical of the season. But without managing risk, preparing for an uncertain future, the organization could not weather this recession. Blame the recession, sure, but the lack of provision for exigencies doomed the organization.
At this writing, the Boston Globe article can be found here.
The Globe article notes recriminations in the wake of the closing, many aimed at the new director of the theatre, Barry Ivan, who took over in 2008. But before that, the organization was in trouble. A fire in 2005 was covered by insurance but the board decided to make improvements as well which cost an additional $1.5 million. While the theatre was under reconstruction, productions moved to Boston's downtown Shubert Theatre. Lost income from this period totalled another $1.5 million.
Most tellingly, NSMT had no endowment. Endowments and retained surpluses are essential if not-for-profit theatres are to survive unanticipated losses. The last three years saw budgeting shortfalls: $492,184 in 2005, $107,856 in 2006, and $621,240 in 2007. Without an endowment, the board borrowed money to bridge the organization's needs, resulting in total liabilities of $4.6 million. With a physical theatre estimated to be worth about $4.9 million, banks were unwilling to loan NSMT more money.
NSMT was supported by its community. A 2007 production of Disney's High School Musical was its highest grossing show ever. Its last production, Show Boat, won the local critics award as best musical of the season. But without managing risk, preparing for an uncertain future, the organization could not weather this recession. Blame the recession, sure, but the lack of provision for exigencies doomed the organization.
At this writing, the Boston Globe article can be found here.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Audiences Down for Non-Musical Theatre; Those Left Are Older, too
The National Endowment for the Arts' Arts Participation 2008 study was just published. As it has in each of the last two editions, it shows the percentage of US citizens reporting attendance at a non-musical play has decreased:
- 1992 13.5 %
- 2002 12.3 %
- 2008 9.4%
- 1992 42 years old
- 2002 44 years old
- 2008 47 years old
- 1992 17.4%
- 2002 17.1%
- 2008 16.7%
Friday, June 12, 2009
Charitable Giving is Down: Bad News for NFP Theatres
Giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations was down by 6.4 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.
The loss to arts is roughly the same as losses to some other sectors, such as environmental and animal welfare organizations and education organizations (down 5.5 percent) or health organizations (down 6.4 percent). International affairs organizations, which include relief programs, rose by 0.6 percent and religious organizations went up 5.5 percent. Added together, total charitable giving shrank by a moderate 2 percent.
Looked at in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), charitable giving is little changed because of the recession. Estimates for 2008 are that giving was 2.2 percent of GDP and in 2007, it was 2.3 percent. However, GDP shrank in 2008 and continues to shrink so far in 2009.
These figures are in nominal dollars. Adding in inflation, the decrease in arts giving is very close to 10 percent in buying power. Not-for-profit theatres that have a strong connection to their communities can withstand budget cuts as small as 10 percent. Marginal theatres, as we've seen, are having money problems and in some cases going under.
This comes from research by Giving USA and the Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, using the IRS 990 forms which not-for-profits must submit each year.
The loss to arts is roughly the same as losses to some other sectors, such as environmental and animal welfare organizations and education organizations (down 5.5 percent) or health organizations (down 6.4 percent). International affairs organizations, which include relief programs, rose by 0.6 percent and religious organizations went up 5.5 percent. Added together, total charitable giving shrank by a moderate 2 percent.
Looked at in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), charitable giving is little changed because of the recession. Estimates for 2008 are that giving was 2.2 percent of GDP and in 2007, it was 2.3 percent. However, GDP shrank in 2008 and continues to shrink so far in 2009.
These figures are in nominal dollars. Adding in inflation, the decrease in arts giving is very close to 10 percent in buying power. Not-for-profit theatres that have a strong connection to their communities can withstand budget cuts as small as 10 percent. Marginal theatres, as we've seen, are having money problems and in some cases going under.
This comes from research by Giving USA and the Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, using the IRS 990 forms which not-for-profits must submit each year.
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