London’s Royal Opera House returned to the black after box office receipts increased and its streaming platform grew in popularity.
The historic Covent Garden icon staged 412 shows across its main stage and Linbury Theater in the year to 27 August 2023, up from 365, while ticket sales increased from 543,953 to 624.96.
Newly filed documents at Companies House also detailed that the Royal Opera House staged 22 new productions, up from 11, while it received 142,576 views of 279 pieces of content on the Royal Opera House Stream, up from more than 60,000.
Owned by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, the venue’s box office receipts grew from £39.6m to £52.6m while its commercial income went from £24.3m to £46m.
But the amount the Royal Opera House received from fundraising and sponsorship fell from £42.8m to £37.6m, but its investment income rose from £800,000 to £3.1m.
Overall, the Royal Opera House’s total income for the year increased from £128.9m to £170.6m while it made a net income of £15.9m after making a loss of £4.2m in the previous 12 months .
Cost of living crisis bites
Chairman Sir Lloyd Dorfman said: “While the disastrous closure of the House in the face of the pandemic was put behind us in the 2022/23 season, the repercussions of that period were still felt and compounded by wider financial and other challenges.
“The cost of running our theaters has increased in the wake of the cost of living crisis which has affected our entire industry as it has the entire economy.
“This has come alongside a significant real-terms cut to our Arts Council England grant and the increasingly pressing need for capital investment in our aging back-of-house infrastructure.
“It was a significant achievement to negotiate these short-term challenges and the determination, resilience and creativity demonstrated by this institution will stand us in good stead as we work to ensure long-term stability.”
Royal Opera House ‘tracked for a trying future’
Sir Lloyd added: “Looking to the future, we have embarked on a range of initiatives to ensure the financial security of the Royal Opera House in the longer term.
“We have focused on increasing fundraising revenue, maximizing box office revenue and cultivating new commercial partnerships.
“The goal is to strengthen our financial foundation and guarantee the continuity of this extraordinary artistic enterprise in the face of the many challenges that lie ahead.
“The progress we have made to date in these areas has been encouraging, but we are well aware that this is not a one-season project and we are ensuring that we are equipped for a testing future.”
