SOLT reports marginal rise in sales figures

The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) has announced West End box office figures for last year, revealing that ticket sales and attendance figures were slightly up on 2011. Gross sales at 52 of London's major theatres, both commercial and grant-aided, rose by 0.3% to £530m and attendances increased by 0.6% to almost 14m year-on-year, with plays experiencing a particularly marked audience increase of 9%.  SOLT had already revealed that the Olympics had dampened sales, but the interruption in August was not as bad as the week of the Royal Wedding in 2011. A strong first half of the year and early Autumn helped sales, as did the launch of almost 50 more new productions than last year. The start of the Michael Grandage Season at the Noel Coward Theatre and the continued popularity of West End transfers like ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ both contributed to the success. This is the ninth year running that SOLT has reported year-on-year growth in ticket income. Since records began in 1986, the average number of tickets sold per performance in the West End has risen from 619 to 758, and the number of new productions each year is up from 213 to 305.