The Society of London Theatres has published its annual report, which shows an increase in box office revenue for its members for the eight successive year.
Total attendances at the 52 larger theatres represented by SOLT were slightly down from 2010 (by 1.73%) which it puts down to an unusually high number of dark weeks (when the theatres were closed to the public) due to new large-scale productions opening that required major installation work such as Ghost the Musical and The Wizard of Oz. However the overall revenue was up by 3.1% to £528,375,874. This suggests that the slightly smaller audience numbers were paying a higher average ticket price for their dose of West End theatre.
SOLT attributes the figures partly to sold-out musicals such as Matilda the Musical, which has a top ticket price of £75, and Les Misérables, now in its 26th year, plus major successes in non-musical theatre such as Frankenstein, Much Ado About Nothing, Noises Off, One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard III, War Horse and Jerusalem, a list that shows a strong bias towards commercial successes that originated from publicly-funded theatres. VAT on tickets from SOLT members last year contributed £88,062,646 to the coffers of the Treasury.
SOLT president Mark Rubinstein 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. 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."