Last Year Musical Market Shrinks... Ticket Sales Down 16.9% Compared to 2018

Interpark Last Year Performance Ticket Sales Analysis... Concerts, Plays, and Classical/Opera Increased

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Interpark, the largest performance ticket reservation site in Korea, analyzed last year's performance ticket sales amount and found that musical ticket sales amounted to 213.74 billion KRW, a 16.9% decrease compared to 2018.

While concert, play, and classical/opera genre performance sales increased compared to 2018, and dance/traditional arts performance ticket sales remained at a similar level to 2018, only musicals showed a noticeable decrease in sales amount compared to the previous year.

Interpark explained that the musical market saw unprecedented growth in 2018, so last year's sales amount relatively decreased, but the average annual growth rate over three years from 2017 was 3.7%.

In fact, musical ticket sales in 2018 amounted to 257.31 billion KRW, a sharp increase of 29.3% compared to 198.9 billion KRW in 2017.

Last year, play ticket sales amounted to 29.688 billion KRW, a 1.7% increase compared to 2018. Classical/opera ticket sales also increased by 9.6% to 26.04 billion KRW. On the other hand, dance/traditional arts ticket sales decreased by 3% to 10.49 billion KRW compared to 2018.

The total performance ticket sales amount in 2019 was approximately 527.648 billion KRW, a 3% decrease compared to 2018. However, thanks to the significant growth of the performance market in 2018, the average growth rate over the past three years was recorded at 9.4%.

While the musical market size shrank, the concert market continued its growth trend and surpassed the musical market size. Concert ticket sales amounted to 247.47 billion KRW, a 10.7% increase compared to 2018.

Interpark stated that it aggregated all ticket sales amounts sold through Interpark web, mobile, global, and affiliates from January 1 to December 31 last year, excluding complimentary tickets.

Ticket Sales Amount by Performance Genre on Interpark in the Last 5 Years (Source: Interpark)

The total number of performances sold on Interpark last year was 13,305, a 5% increase from 12,674 in 2018.

Classical/opera had the highest number of performances with 4,245. The number of classical/opera performances increased by 5.2% compared to 2018. Concerts increased by 10.5% to 2,966 performances, and musicals recorded 3,075 performances, a 6.7% increase.

Looking at the gender and age groups of performance ticket buyers, female audiences dominated with 72%.

In the case of musicals, women in their 30s accounted for the highest proportion at 34%, while in plays and concerts, women in their 20s accounted for the highest proportions at 31% and 32%, respectively.

Gender and Age Group Distribution by Performance Genre (Source: Interpark)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.