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Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Are Broadway Tickets Too Expensive? Gen Z and Millennials Don’t Think So
Ken Davenport: Last week, I wrote an article on my website: Are Broadway Tickets More Expensive Now?
And sure enough, the universe answered with a brand-new study from my friends at No Guarantees Productions, a terrific producing organization that wanted to dig into exactly that.
9 comments:
Eliana Stevens
said...
I thought it was very interesting that only 70% of people said theater tickets were too expensive. I would love to know the demographics and who was in the 30% group. Are they groups of people who have more money? Are they a group of people? who have easier access to theater. One of the questions that was posed is, "How much are you willing to pay?" The most common response was they were willing to pay over 500 dollars in order to see a performance, but my question is how many can afford to pay over 500 dollars for a theater ticket? For me, I would absolutely spend over 500 dollars to see a show, but in no way does that mean that I can afford it or have the means to go. I would like to see the results if the question was changed and instead asked, "What is the most you can afford to pay for a ticket to the theater?"
I find the change in opinion of those surveyed who originally said tickets were too expensive then when compared to luxury goods changes their answer. while it is true that shows are incredibly expensive to run, art should always try to be accessible to as many people as possible. the idea that theater tickets should be considered a "luxury good" goes against why theater even exists in the first place. it is true that it costs a very large amount of money to run a broadway show, that is absolutely true. However the idea that 500$ for one ticket is a reasonable ask is absolutely insane. there are very few people who could afford to spend that much to see a show. if shows were to charge 500 per ticket sales would go down, and theater would become something that could only be enjoyed by rich people.
This title is honestly super misleading. Young people DO think Broadway tickets are expensive. It's also weird to put the actual statistics so far back (to be specific, 2 links away) in the article. I was expecting some drastic changes and super interesting statistics of price breakdowns, and pay differences between theatre execs and performers/technicians. But what was there was a bunch of extremely biased leading questions. For example, one of the prompts on the survey was "did you know a Broadway musical can cost $600,000 to over a million per week to produce?"
This is exceedingly unclear and unhelpful to the average consumer. There is no price breakdown of how many people are involved in the show, how many people are getting paid, or what people are getting paid. The surveyors decided to include a large number to sway people's opinions toward a particular answer. The surveyors WANT the results to be that people think Broadway tickets aren't expensive. The bottom line is: they are. Broadway is in large owned by an extremely small group of people.
This article is a little confusing to me. The core of the article is the question that was asked which is as the article said simple. Which inevitably leads to a simple result. Of course the majority of people would find Broadway tickets expensive. Regardless that is not the part of this article that really caught my attention.
The aspect of this article that really caught my attention is the idea of comparing the cost of luxury goods to Broadway tickets. If you look at the price that it takes to make a typical luxury item such as a handbag or a high quality suit the price of the final item reflects the materials cost. The difference between luxury items and theater though is popularity. There are simply more people willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a luxury bag than an expensive theater ticket. Leading to said items being priced higher due to demand. In one way you could even consider a Broadway Ticket as a Luxury itself when compared to the prices of local or even regional theater. The article is misleading, but is still relevant to the structure our capitalism.
This article is extremely interesting, as it highlights how important theatre education is. If we educate more people about all of the hours and all of the members of the team that it takes to produce a broadway level show, they would be more likely to understand the rising costs of tickets. I 100% agree with the author that there should still be accessible ticket prices to cultivate the next generation of the art. However, in order to pay everyone a liveable wage, we still need to keep some higher priced ticket options for the people that can afford them. In addition, most people don’t know that most shows that are produced never make a profit. Educating people on this fact as well could possibly persuade the higher ticket prices too. I believe that if people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for live entertainment like Beyonce and Taylor Swift, we can do the same for live theatre.
When I first saw the article I was shocked because I assumed many people thought broadway tickets were overpriced especially people who only go watch theater, not do it. As I read more I got confused on the title but intrigued as they showed results saying that over 70% of people asked (500 Gen Z, 500 Millennials) said they were too expensive. As a person who does theater and understands the work that goes into putting on a production especially the scale of broadway, I find the prices to be a little too much in some cases. I just recently took a trip to NYC where I saw Moulin Rouge and Chicago the production quality of those two shows were vastly different, despite the ticket prices being within 100$ of each other. I would be interested to see these polls done on specific shows because in my opinion some prices match the quality where some shows don't always fit the same price range.
I found this article very interesting because it truly comments on the importance of educating audiences on theatre and what it truly takes to put a Broadway level production on. I found it interesting that people initially said that tickets were too expensive then compared to expensive goods and services people said that tickets were cheaper compared to expensive designer brands and expensive experiences. As a theatre student I agree with the price of theatre tickets as a lot goes into a production, but I do think that prices of tickets should vary based on the level of the production and how professional it is considered. For example if an understudy goes on for a lead then ticket prices COULD be lowered as people may have been going to watch a specific person in a performance and it may not be what they thought the performance would live up to.
The title of this article is a little misleading but I do not think the content is wrong. I have been one to argue that Broadway is inaccessible and while ticket prices are one of the reasons I do not think it is the major one. I think it is a proximity issue more than anything else. And I think this author is correct. I mean we lash out about broadway ticket prices but dont bat an eye when it comes to dropping 1k on Taylor Swift tickets. I agree that there is a balance and another complement I will give to Broadway is the amount of tickets that are sold at a discount price. I was in NYC over the summer and I rushed every single show I saw and ended up paying anywhere from $40-$75 which is not bad at all. Theatre tickets are not easy to sell these days regardless of price but I do not think just simply dropping ticket prices is going to solve all of our issues.
The cost of an experience is one of the hardest things to quantify—and theatre is, at its core, an experience. This article does a good job of explaining why a Broadway show can easily cost upwards of $500. When you factor in the cost of materials, the number of people on payroll, and everything required to make a production run smoothly, it’s no small feat to deliver the kind of performance an audience wants to spend their evening enjoying. The challenge is that, in today’s world, we can get Broadway-level entertainment through countless streaming services at home for a fraction of the price—or even for free. When compared to a theatrical production, the cost, time commitment, and other factors make the sale much harder. This raises important questions: Why is a live theatre experience better than a movie on the couch? Why should audiences seek out this luxury good? And if theatre is considered a luxury, does that mean it’s not for everyone? This is where the push to lower ticket prices becomes essential. If Broadway remains monopolized and exclusive, its stories and perspectives will also remain limited. Making theatre more accessible ensures that it can be both a luxury experience and an inclusive one.
9 comments:
I thought it was very interesting that only 70% of people said theater tickets were too expensive. I would love to know the demographics and who was in the 30% group. Are they groups of people who have more money? Are they a group of people? who have easier access to theater. One of the questions that was posed is, "How much are you willing to pay?" The most common response was they were willing to pay over 500 dollars in order to see a performance, but my question is how many can afford to pay over 500 dollars for a theater ticket? For me, I would absolutely spend over 500 dollars to see a show, but in no way does that mean that I can afford it or have the means to go. I would like to see the results if the question was changed and instead asked, "What is the most you can afford to pay for a ticket to the theater?"
I find the change in opinion of those surveyed who originally said tickets were too expensive then when compared to luxury goods changes their answer. while it is true that shows are incredibly expensive to run, art should always try to be accessible to as many people as possible. the idea that theater tickets should be considered a "luxury good" goes against why theater even exists in the first place. it is true that it costs a very large amount of money to run a broadway show, that is absolutely true. However the idea that 500$ for one ticket is a reasonable ask is absolutely insane. there are very few people who could afford to spend that much to see a show. if shows were to charge 500 per ticket sales would go down, and theater would become something that could only be enjoyed by rich people.
This title is honestly super misleading. Young people DO think Broadway tickets are expensive. It's also weird to put the actual statistics so far back (to be specific, 2 links away) in the article. I was expecting some drastic changes and super interesting statistics of price breakdowns, and pay differences between theatre execs and performers/technicians. But what was there was a bunch of extremely biased leading questions. For example, one of the prompts on the survey was "did you know a Broadway musical can cost $600,000 to over a million per week to produce?"
This is exceedingly unclear and unhelpful to the average consumer. There is no price breakdown of how many people are involved in the show, how many people are getting paid, or what people are getting paid. The surveyors decided to include a large number to sway people's opinions toward a particular answer. The surveyors WANT the results to be that people think Broadway tickets aren't expensive. The bottom line is: they are. Broadway is in large owned by an extremely small group of people.
This article is a little confusing to me. The core of the article is the question that was asked which is as the article said simple. Which inevitably leads to a simple result. Of course the majority of people would find Broadway tickets expensive. Regardless that is not the part of this article that really caught my attention.
The aspect of this article that really caught my attention is the idea of comparing the cost of luxury goods to Broadway tickets. If you look at the price that it takes to make a typical luxury item such as a handbag or a high quality suit the price of the final item reflects the materials cost. The difference between luxury items and theater though is popularity. There are simply more people willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a luxury bag than an expensive theater ticket. Leading to said items being priced higher due to demand. In one way you could even consider a Broadway Ticket as a Luxury itself when compared to the prices of local or even regional theater. The article is misleading, but is still relevant to the structure our capitalism.
This article is extremely interesting, as it highlights how important theatre education is. If we educate more people about all of the hours and all of the members of the team that it takes to produce a broadway level show, they would be more likely to understand the rising costs of tickets. I 100% agree with the author that there should still be accessible ticket prices to cultivate the next generation of the art. However, in order to pay everyone a liveable wage, we still need to keep some higher priced ticket options for the people that can afford them. In addition, most people don’t know that most shows that are produced never make a profit. Educating people on this fact as well could possibly persuade the higher ticket prices too. I believe that if people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for live entertainment like Beyonce and Taylor Swift, we can do the same for live theatre.
When I first saw the article I was shocked because I assumed many people thought broadway tickets were overpriced especially people who only go watch theater, not do it. As I read more I got confused on the title but intrigued as they showed results saying that over 70% of people asked (500 Gen Z, 500 Millennials) said they were too expensive. As a person who does theater and understands the work that goes into putting on a production especially the scale of broadway, I find the prices to be a little too much in some cases. I just recently took a trip to NYC where I saw Moulin Rouge and Chicago the production quality of those two shows were vastly different, despite the ticket prices being within 100$ of each other. I would be interested to see these polls done on specific shows because in my opinion some prices match the quality where some shows don't always fit the same price range.
I found this article very interesting because it truly comments on the importance of educating audiences on theatre and what it truly takes to put a Broadway level production on. I found it interesting that people initially said that tickets were too expensive then compared to expensive goods and services people said that tickets were cheaper compared to expensive designer brands and expensive experiences. As a theatre student I agree with the price of theatre tickets as a lot goes into a production, but I do think that prices of tickets should vary based on the level of the production and how professional it is considered. For example if an understudy goes on for a lead then ticket prices COULD be lowered as people may have been going to watch a specific person in a performance and it may not be what they thought the performance would live up to.
The title of this article is a little misleading but I do not think the content is wrong. I have been one to argue that Broadway is inaccessible and while ticket prices are one of the reasons I do not think it is the major one. I think it is a proximity issue more than anything else. And I think this author is correct. I mean we lash out about broadway ticket prices but dont bat an eye when it comes to dropping 1k on Taylor Swift tickets. I agree that there is a balance and another complement I will give to Broadway is the amount of tickets that are sold at a discount price. I was in NYC over the summer and I rushed every single show I saw and ended up paying anywhere from $40-$75 which is not bad at all. Theatre tickets are not easy to sell these days regardless of price but I do not think just simply dropping ticket prices is going to solve all of our issues.
The cost of an experience is one of the hardest things to quantify—and theatre is, at its core, an experience. This article does a good job of explaining why a Broadway show can easily cost upwards of $500. When you factor in the cost of materials, the number of people on payroll, and everything required to make a production run smoothly, it’s no small feat to deliver the kind of performance an audience wants to spend their evening enjoying. The challenge is that, in today’s world, we can get Broadway-level entertainment through countless streaming services at home for a fraction of the price—or even for free. When compared to a theatrical production, the cost, time commitment, and other factors make the sale much harder. This raises important questions: Why is a live theatre experience better than a movie on the couch? Why should audiences seek out this luxury good? And if theatre is considered a luxury, does that mean it’s not for everyone? This is where the push to lower ticket prices becomes essential. If Broadway remains monopolized and exclusive, its stories and perspectives will also remain limited. Making theatre more accessible ensures that it can be both a luxury experience and an inclusive one.
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