Three seats in ten sit empty in Quebec venues

The Institut de la statistique du Québec, Quebec's statistical institute, measures a 72% occupancy rate for paid Quebec-produced performances in 2024. Nearly three seats in ten sat empty, and each one carried an almost full margin.

The figure deserves a note on scope. It covers paid performing arts performances of Quebec origin, for the year 2024. Performances of foreign origin reached 83% over the same period, a reminder that these two markets do not compare.

If this figure weighs so heavily in a budget, it is because of a show's cost structure. The venue is rented, the artist fee paid, the technical crew hired. One more spectator does not raise any of those line items. Their contribution margin comes close to the ticket price, that is, what remains of the price once the costs directly tied to that sale are paid, commissions and rights for example.

On a $42 ticket, those three empty seats in ten therefore represent almost three times $42 in unrealized margin per block of ten seats. That calculation, not a percentage of the production cost, is what should set a performance's acquisition budget, that is, the amount invested in advertising to go get ticket buyers.

How to use it

Do not use this figure as a target. An average says nothing about what your venue, your discipline or your territory should reach. Use it instead as an order of magnitude to situate your own performance and to justify an acquisition investment to a board.

The figure that decides for you remains your natural occupancy, that is, what you sell without paid acquisition. It determines how many seats you actually have to go get, and therefore the budget you can commit without destroying margin.

A management team that brings this figure to its board obtains an acquisition budget more easily than by talking about awareness. Three empty seats in ten translate into dollars, and dollars are what a board decides on.

This point sits inside the plan described in building the marketing budget.