Original material never seems to sell like the Big Name stuff. Still, no worries.

 Brand new theatre..WOW...and congrats.  Remember is doesn't cost anything to fill empty seats. 

  Keep us in the loop!

 

I also agree about the comps. If it gets close to opening day and you have empty seats, give out comps or do a buy one get one free especially since you are a new theater. Getting people in the doors is the most important thing at this point.

  Ticket prices can be a big turn off too, hope they are reasonable.

 

Sound like you are trying, and doing a lot of things right. Keep the faith.

PS  I would bet A LOT of us have done shows where we would have THRILLED to have a half full house.

 

We stopped doing multi-weeks and have started doing one - two week runs and no longer. Most of our sales are comprised of the following:

- Online the last week before open

- Walk-ins (our biggest chunk of sales)

- Shows after opening due to hype about the show & repeat patrons (second biggest chunk of sales)

 

For our door people, we have tried everything to get people to buy tickets in advance and nothing has worked. We charge $5 more at the door, we offer discounts for "Buy a return ticket before you leave this performance & get a % off," "Buy ticket online & get free drink / snack at concessions..." People still pay at the door (which is fine because we make more money that way! LOL).

 

And granted, some shows we have taken a major hit. For example, we just closed "The Producers," which we thought would do amazing and we barely broke even. One show we had one patron in the audience.

 

Bottom line for our company is that we are doing the shows for the youth that participate and in the end, they enjoy it and as long as we aren't going completely broke, we keep floating along. Now don't get me wrong, we are definitely always looking for ways to bring in money and patrons!

 

Getting in a panic is only going to stress you out. If the show ended up not getting the audience / money, figure out what went wrong and try not to make the same mistake. Luckily for our company we have a lot of brutally honest people that come to our shows that we talk to and find out what we could have done better.

 

I think your numbers are telling something about your marketing.  Since you get the same amount whether you do 2 weekends or 3-4 weekends, you can guess the following:  1.)you have saturated the market that you are reaching. 2.) you aren't getting many people coming back.

 

That means you need to find some new markets.  Maybe you've relied on radio and you need to try reaching the folks who read the paper.  You need to 'train' you audience to think about coming back.

 

Here are a few ideas: 

 

1.) Print on your ticket or your program, a coupon for 2 tickets for the price of one for this show.  The pitch is "to come back and share your fun with a friend"  Notice this is 3 tickets sold for the price of 2...and the audience is fuller...and the audience talks up the show. 

 

2.) Pick the guy who has a bit of comic timing (ie that guy who works in the theatre that always seems to make things fun) and have him come out before the show and announce the promo listed as idea one, and also pitch season tickets. This guy makes it fun, and sets the audience up for a fun show.

 

3.) If your likely audience is older (or younger) then offer a 'deal' to the nursing homes (or schools).

 

4.) Make some sort of contest that the MC in #2 announces.  What ever the contest is, make sure that the prize is some comp tickets to the last show (or the next show).  Also be sure that to win the audience member has to DO something--sign the back of the ticket, drop it in a jar when leaving, or mail it in.  The more they do the more they are deciding they are fans of your theatre. (Publisher's Clearinghouse does this for the same reason).