LPA Ticket Attendance and Revenue Report 2018

Photo: The Book of Mormon, The Gordon Frost Organisation, Jeff Busby

Overall Category Highlights Click for moreinfo

This section presents an analysis for each of the 12 event categories, as defined in Appendix B. While total ticket sales revenue and attendance increased by 14.8% and 14.1% respectively, most of the categories experienced either significant growth or decline. This is primarily due to the impact of major tours or events, particularly international tours, in the market in any given year.

  • As with previous years, Contemporary Music and Musical Theatre command the largest share of the live performance market respectively.
  • Contemporary Music continues to be the top live performance category. Contemporary Music generated more than 50% of revenue and approximately 38% of attendance of the overall live performance market.
  • Comedy, Contemporary Music, Festivals (Multi-Category), Special Events and Opera categories experienced significant increases in revenue and attendance in 2018. Comedy, Contemporary Music and Special Events categories, in particular, witnessed record-breaking growth.
  • Children’s/Family and Festivals (Contemporary Music) also experienced an increase in revenue driven by growth in attendance and the average ticket price.
  • Despite decline in attendance, Ballet and Dance, Classical Music and Theatre reported growth in revenue in 2018, driven by growth in average ticket prices.
  • Circus and Physical Theatre and Musical Theatre reported a decrease in revenue in 2018. Significant impact was observed in Circus and Physical Theatre category, primarily due to the absence of some of the major events in 2018.

Photo: Attractor, Perth Festival 2018, Toni Wilkinson

Top 5 Categories - Revenue and Attendance

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Revenue Attendance
Category Revenue Share of industry Category Attendance Share of industry
1 Contemporary Music $1,092,275,549 50.5% 1 Contemporary Music 10,088,329 38.4%
2 Musical Theatre $400,199,798 18.5% 2 Musical Theatre 3,917,532 14.9%
3 Comedy $124,742,437 5.8% 3 Festivals (Multi-Category) 2,577,932 9.8%
4 Festivals (Contemporary Music) $102,015,922 4.7% 4 Comedy 2,458,198 9.4%
5 Classical Music $79,456,707 3.7% 5 Children's/Family 1,650,955 6.3%

Top 3 Biggest Changes in Revenue by Category

Biggest Increase Biggest Decline
Category % change in revenue (from 2017) Category % change in revenue (from 2017)
1 Special Events 337.9% 1 Circus and Physical Theatre -79.9%
2 Comedy 72.5% 2 Musical Theatre -4.0%
3 Contemporary Music 32.2% 3 - -

Top 3 Biggest Changes in Attendance by Category

Biggest Increase Biggest Decline
Category % change in attendance (from 2016) Category % change in attendance (from 2016)
1 Comedy 98.5% 1 Circus and Physical Theatre -61.3%
2 Festivals (Multi-Category) 38.1% 2 Classical Music -4.3%
3 Children's/Family 26.4% 3 Musical Theatre -3.1%

Percentage Movement by Category

Photo: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Michael Cassel Group, Joan Marcus