The Influence of Pricing in the Performing Arts

One way of generating more earned income for performing art theaters is to increase ticket sales by enhancing the structure of the price policy related to price differentiation in a theater hall. There is studied that implementing various ranks in a theater hall is profitable for theaters, but what is its effect on attendance? Furthermore, knowledge about how to price the various ranks is still lacking. By studying pricing of the various ranks in performing art theater halls, a gap in theory will be filled which could be practically useful for performing art theaters. The dataset of the research consists of data from 60 performances of 8 Dutch theatrical productions of various genres. The height of relative price differences between ranks in a theater hall is studied in relation to attendance and revenue. This resulted in a significant evidence for the fact that an increase in relative price differences between the various ranks is related to an increase in total attendance, but a decrease in revenue per visitor. Its influence on total revenue was not significant, but the effect was positive. Furthermore, an increase in price differences between various ranks, even as a more equal dispersion of the number of seats per rank, is related to a more equally dispersed number of visitors per rank which is prove for an effective price policy. A price policy with significant relative price differences between various ranks in a theater hall contributes to the maximization of attendance and revenue, with the highest contribution to attendance. Thinking of the main values theaters strive for (as artistic, cultural and societal values): the higher the number of visitors, the better theaters’ main values can be realized. In short, enhancing the structure of theaters’ price policies, related to the pricing of ranks in theater halls, will simultaneously contribute to the realization of theaters’ values. Therefore, pricing is of great importance.