Just over a quarter of the 72,000 theatregoers who last year visited Bolton’s Octagon Theatre were new to the venue.
The figure is from the theatre’s Annual Report 2012/13.
A little over 40% of Octagon attendees also travelled from outside the Greater Manchester area during 2012/13.
Further upbeat news was that sales of season tickets increased on the previous year, as did the number of attenders returning to the Octagon following an initial visit.
More than half of 2012/13 festive show attenders were also aged 16 or under.
Of Mice and Men became the Octagon’s best-selling non-festive show in the theatre’s history, selling almost 12,000 tickets and taking more than £141,000 at the box office.
It’s estimated that the Octagon contributes £7.8m to the economy
Chief executive Roddy Gauld commented: “The Octagon had a successful year with a huge range of theatre productions and numerous education and young people's projects. The fact that we were able to set new box office records says so much about the demand for our work.
"As a charity it's important that we tell people what we've achieved, because it really is due to everyone else's ongoing support that we're able to thrive.”
A copy of the Annual Report can be downloaded from the Octagon's web site.