www.ticketnews.com: Research released this summer by No Guarantees Productions, in partnership with trend firm Culture Co-Op, found that while 72% of younger audiences say Broadway tickets are too expensive, most significantly overestimate the cost of an average seat and underestimate the value of the experience. Respondents guessed the average Broadway ticket costs $256, compared to the real average of $136.
15 comments:
This is a very interesting article that almost instantly caught my attention when I opened the blog. As I had commented on the article in the past that was discussing the price of Broadway tickets. In that post that I made I commented on the fact that peoples opinions on ticket pricing may be inaccurate due to the fact that some people may not know the quality difference between Broadway productions compared to local theater productions. So it is very interesting to read that once people learned about what goes into a Broadway production they are able to justify or even expect to pay triple the average price of a ticket. As someone who works in theater it is very heartwarming to hear people recognize the amount of work that goes into theater, but at the same time it is funny to see people blow the ticket price way up. Which both shows that they understand the quality of theater, but also don't really understand how that quality translates into ticket prices.
I thought this article was really cool to read. Even though I believe tickets can get a little pricey, It’s great to know people of our generation believe that broadway shows are undervalued. I found it kind of funny that those surveyed believed that if a show is discounting tickets they might think the show is not that great quality. It’s also great to see that this study shows people of our generation the kind of work designers and actors do during the pre-show process. There have been many times I have seen audience members getting interviewed to see what they know about theatre and live performances and they tend to be unsure of their answer most of the time. I think it’s really good that people know a little bit about what work goes into the entertainment they consume and how much of it the creators put into it.
For me personality, as a child who has grown up around theater and have loved theater for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember there ever being a time where I didn’t "appreciate" the work that goes into a broadway show. Since I can remember I have always seen and imagined broadway and this magical place where anything can happen and as some sort of place where anything is possible. At least for me broadway is something that I think extremely high of broadway and would pay a lot of money to watch and attend a broadway show the question and problem for me as always been I just could never afford it, and when I was able to attend it was a special treat and wasn’t something that I could afford only after saving up for it, but maybe that’s what makes it magical, is it being a once and a while treat.
I don’t really know if I fully agree that knowing what goes on behind the scenes to create a Broadway show should make people rethink ticket prices. If anything, I think that the behind the scenes OF the behind the scenes should really make people rethink. Kind of unrelated, but I recently found out how cheap West End tickets are compared to Broadway (you can see Hamilton for $25 apparently??? Crazy). One of them is a bad reason (West End unions aren’t as strong so the workers get paid less), but another reason is that the government funds the arts far more than our government does (especially now.) Even though I’m literally going to be one of those people who works behind the scenes, and relies on the unions, I first and foremost believe that art should be accessible to the public, not put under lock and key to the rich. We should be striving for lower ticket prices, not arguing that maybe they should actually be more expensive. Some people are willing to pay >$200 for a ticket, but some people can’t.
I have to admit, this article surprised me. I guess I had in my head that younger people don’t appreciate live theater as much as older audiences, let alone appreciate it even more. It’s a little reassuring to read that audiences are willing to pay just as much, if not more, for a Broadway experience. I wonder if there’s a reason why younger generations feel this way about ticket prices. The fact is that value aside, they are an expensive purchase, and I think the current generation is financially struggling more than previous generations. I would guess that the appreciation of the work of theater is a result of more widespread arts education in public schools. I’m sure that the different generational view on emotion also plays a part, as the article touches on briefly. I’m interested to see whether or not we’ll notice a change in advertising now that this data has been published.
This article is very interesting because of the content and the perspective. You don't normally see articles talking about tickets being at is right price, there is always a cost lowering or raising. I think the research around what people thought were the average and other costs was really interesting because it puts into perspective how people think not only about the average pricing, but also the amount of work equated to a cost. I would personally not pay 500 dollars on a ticket to a show, though people said that they would do to the work put into the production process. I also think that it is hard to make Broadway tickets have the same urgency that concert tickets have due to a number of reason. One being that if a show goes up, it will normally be up for a couple of months, allowing viewers to choose when to see it, compared to a concert that normally only has one night in a certain area. Another reason is that people can't stop their lives to go to New York and watch a Broadway show. Because it is stationary, it is hard for the urgency of concert tickets. Also, even though the average price is around 130 dollars, that isn't doable for people who are buying multiple tickets and/or having to deal with the expensive cost of living or visiting the city.
This is why arts education is so important. If more people understand how much goes into a production, they will value it more. I found it really interesting how the article stated that discounting tickets do not increase the appeal. Instead, it actually made people believe that the production was of a lower quality, the exact opposite of the discount’s goal. I feel like this issue also goes back to the entertainment industry as a whole right now, where most high level experiences like concerts consistently run you in the hundreds. This leads people to believe that Broadway costs more than it actually does. I find it wild how little people know about theatre. The article said that the audience’s perceived value of a production tripled once they knew how much work went into it. I am curious to know how people think that these productions come to life. It’s possible that many only have witnessed educational theatre, and believe that is what the professional world is like too.
I am very curious as to how this research study was performed. I wonder what specific aspects of the theater making process were shown to the test subjects. However I do agree that the value of seeing a full production live show is kind of priceless, even though you do need to put a price on it technically. I think this is because of the rise of ai. And how we are constantly consuming entertainment on our phones. A lot of what we consume on the daily is low production if it's a form of social media, or high production tv shows and movies. But this forms a desensitization to live performance, a similar comparison could be made with live music. I think this generation values the impact of live and tangible things a lot more than older ones. However the main question is if our generation will have the money to afford high cost shows. So this all being said, i hope broadway doesn't take this as a sign to now up its prices.
I think young people and younger audiences are bound to be more interested by quality experiences than they are by quality products as, by definition, they have had less of these experiences than their older counterparts. Especially with Covid 19 having such an impact on young people’s lives and their ability to have as many live experiences, I think a lot of young people are rightfully interested in seeing as many live performances, shows, and having as many experiences as possible now that they have the opportunity to. There is a lot of mystery surrounding live performances- especially in theater and even more so in the secretive world of broadway. By putting what goes into productions front and center a lot more understanding and interest can be garnered in the same way that the “making of” dvds included in Lord of the Rings boxsets created even more interest and fandom in those movies. By increasing transparency and by demystifying the money, time, and effort- both creative and labor based- that goes into Broadway shows, I think a lot more people will gain appreciation for these shows and will be a lot more interested in spending the money to go see them.
Overall, the article paints a hopeful picture: younger audiences are not dismissing Broadway as overpriced or irrelevant — rather, they may simply need better context and meaningful value. If the theater industry leans into that, there’s an opportunity to deepen engagement and maybe even expand the base. This is not surprising, but in that same vein it is helpful to know what the audiences want, especially being thrown into this world of theater. As a person who has felt that my work has gone unnoticed, it is also so so interesting for one of the key aspects of this argument to be that the Gen Z audience wants to see what goes into a production, to see the heart of it all and how people's individual stories go into this larger story that is being displayed on stage. Just overall, there is a message within this article that is oddly uplifting as an artist, with the excitement of better things to come.
I think that this was a very interesting article. As someone who does fall into that category of people who they were interviewing, I do kind of share the same sentiment, where I tend to think of Broadway ticket prices as not really accessible to me on a price point basis. to be honest, well there is a difference between the price that they were interviewed for, and the price that Broadway ticket sales average out at, that average price for a Broadway ticket is still not something I would really be able to see all that often. Furthermore, I don't think that thinking Broadway ticket prices are expensive means that you immediately disregard all of the work that goes into a Broadway production. For me personally, I am very aware of all of the work that goes into making every production possible. I do, however, think that there are ways of supporting the Arts that our government does not participate in that leaves us to feel the burden of these ticket prices alone. Part of that is the intensely capitalistic society that we live in, as theater is seen to most people who invest in it as not a donation, but an investment that they need to get their money back in, but also because American society in particular is very against anything remotely approaching socialism, we don't have nearly the same publicly funded Arts grants available. I know that for at least the West End in the UK, part of the reason why they're ticket prices are much lower is because they're partially funded by the government so that they don't have to hold themselves up just off of grosses.
What I found really interesting here is that younger people actually think Broadway tickets cost way more than they do. Most guessed around 250 dollars when the real average is closer to 130. Once they were shown how much work and detail goes into a production their perception of value went up a lot. It made me realize that the issue is not just the price but how the experience is explained. Younger audiences said they would rather spend money on experiences than on things, so if Broadway is framed as something meaningful and crafted with intention it lands better. Another surprising point was that discounts sometimes have the opposite effect, making people think the show might not be as good. It seems like the key is not lowering the ticket cost but instead showing why the cost makes sense and why it is worth seeing now instead of waiting.
I feel like the wording of this article is misleading, in that it presents statistics, but then misconstrues them to defend a point that I do not believe they prove. Firstly, I wish they discussed methodology more, because the jump from thinking one should pay $141 for broadway tickets to $512 seems like a lot. Looking at the actual study, it appears that multiple participants said they would pay upwards of $600 for a Broadway ticket before learning about Broadway at all. I find this issue a lot in authors’ attempts to make research more accessible for a wider audience. I understand the goal of making an article shorter and having eye-catching results, but I also believe that an audience needs to understand the true statistics that a study presents. Ultimately, it is a fine line to walk between a catchy article and one that rewrites facts and I think the focus should be on accuracy.
I think about this all the time, and it actually makes so much sense. I don't think we even need a study to prove that our generation cares a lot about life performance, of course we do. After spending your whole life going to a screen when you need an emotional outlet, live entertainment is a breath of fresh air. To come to a place full of real life people, watch a performance put on by other real life people, and react together- this creates a relationship. No matter how small, this develops connection between people in a generation that’s been told not to need it (but we all do.) Live entertainment isn’t a movie, it isn’t a tiktok video, it’s ephemeral. Broadway shows start and end, always different. No matter how well trained everyone is, there will be variation in live entertainment, a human error that makes it all the more real. Not to say live entertainment is full of mistakes, that’s not what I’m trying to do. As a part of a generation bread to think like consumers, the arts feel like a place to relax. I can go watch a production and spend a couple of hours just feeling, empathising with other people. Of course we put higher value in that when we lack human connection everywhere else.
This is such a positive read. I often go to see shows and I notice how old the audience tends to lean. I remember this summer I said something along the lines of “do you think our generation will one day be the old people in the theatre or do you think it will die out” and my family responded saying they think my generation will become the old people at the theatre. And I guess they are right if this is the data that is coming out. And even better, not only is it suggesting that gen z will attend theatre but they value it higher. I do think it is interesting that this article was about ticket prices. I do think it is a good way to gauge peoples willingness to go see a show numerically but I do think it is subjective and there is a whole different conversation about what they are willing to pay for that is mentioned in this article but not fully fleshed out.
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