Price Hike and Hurricane Curbed Metropolitan Opera Sales Last Year

The Metropolitan Opera sold 79 percent of its seats during the 2012-13 season, suffering a decline in attendance in a year in which it raised admission charges, writes The New York Times.

Opera officials said Hurricane Sandy, which forced the cancellation of two performances and slowed attendance for several weeks after it hit in October 2012, also contributed to the sales drop. The Met collected $93.4-million at the box office for the season, down more than $6-million from two years earlier, according to a financial disclosure.

The take represented 69 percent of the opera’s total potential box-office revenue, after a decade in which the figure was typically around 80 percent.

The opera acknowledged last February that sales were down and cut ticket prices by about 10 percent for the current season. The decline in box-office revenue was offset by increases in donations and earnings from the Met’s high-definition opera presentations in cinemas.