Following are highlights from Theatre Facts 2010:
• Theatres offered 163,000 performances that attracted over 31 million attendees.
• The majority of theatres’ employees are engaged in artistic positions, with an average workplace consisting of 60% artistic, 27% technical and 13% administrative personnel.
• 50% of total income came from earned sources and 50% from contributions. 62% of theatres ended 2010 with a positive Change in Unrestricted Net Assets (CUNA), as compared to 43% in 2008 and 41% in 2009. This can be largely attributed to robust growth in single ticket income (largely driven by price increases over time) and endowment earnings (investment income rebounded by 183.4% from 2009 to 2010).
• Average working capital (unrestricted resources available to the theatre to meet obligations and day-to-day cash needs) was negative in each of the five years becoming even more severe in 2009 and 2010. However, capital campaigns left theatres with substantial growth in investments and new, improved or expanded facilities, with a 33% rise in fixed assets over the past five years.
• Contributed income dropped by 11.6% in 2010 from a 5-year high in 2009, and by 5.2% from 2006. The greatest support consistently came from individual contributions (trustees and other individuals) and foundation support, although from 2009 to 2010, support from these sources dropped in the double digits. There were also declines from 2006 to 2010 in corporate, state and local support.
• Average single ticket income exceeded subscription income each year and was at a five-year high in 2010, outpacing inflation by 16.7%. The number of single tickets buyers rose by 3% over the five-year period.
• Average subscription income decreased 15.1% over the 5-year span, 14% fewer subscription tickets were purchased and the number of subscribers fell by 15%. The one-year change from 2009 to 2010 for subscription income, subscription tickets and the number of subscribers was
-8.5%, -6% and -4%, respectively.
• There was a slight growth of 0.7% in resident attendance from 2009 to 2010 with a corresponding decrease of 3.3% in the number of performances offered. From 2006 to 2010, overall resident production attendance dropped 3.6% and the number of performances fell by 1.4%, however there was double-digit growth in attendance over the five years for both staged readings/workshops and other performances (pre-show events, lectures, late-night cabarets, etc.).
• Despite belt-tightening in many areas in 2009 and in 2010, total expense growth for the 5-year period exceeded inflation by 3.1%. All expense categories were cut in the past year, with the exception of physical production expenses and occupancy expenses, with total expenses falling by 2.7%.
• 63% broke even or ended the year with a surplus.
• 72% reported similar to or higher than expected overall attendance.
• 70% reported overall ticket income equal to or greater than budget.
• 55% - 70% reported contributions similar to or higher than expected from all sources—government, foundation, corporate, trustee and other individuals.
• 74% reported operations expenses to be on or below budget.
• 40% reported having cash flow problems this year.