JACKSONVILLE, FL, July 5, 2023 – Concert industry trade magazine Pollstar released its attendance charts for the first half of 2023 (December 12, 2022, through June 26, 2023); and the Florida Theatre has been ranked the 39th most-attended theatre in the world in the auditorium and theatre category and is ranked 50th in ticket sales, based on gross receipts.
Notable venues in this attendance chart include Radio City Music Hall in New York City (ranked #1 in tickets), the Fox Theatre in Atlanta (ranked #8 in tickets), and the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles (ranked #17 in tickets). Notable venues the Florida Theatre out-ranked include the Theater at Madison Square Garden (ranked #47 in tickets), the Grand Ole Opry House (ranked #82 in gross receipts), and Royal Albert Hall (ranked #88 in gross receipts).
The Florida Theatre earned its status on this chart the hard way, one night at a time… which, according to Numa Saisselin, President of the Florida Theatre, speaks to the support of Jacksonville and the success of the Theatre’s programming at the 1,865-seat venue.
In 75% of the time, the Florida Theatre has done 90% of the number of shows they did last year (117 in 2023 versus 126 in 2022) and 85% of the number of tickets they did last year. To date, the Florida Theatre has sold 102,057 tickets with $5,138,361 in gross receipts during the 2023 season.
This ranking is especially significant because the Florida Theatre will be closed from July to October for $8 million in renovations (re-plastering and repainting the interior, replacing the HVAC, updating the bathrooms, and moving the electrical vault from the 1st to the 3rd floor) and will lose 10 to 20 shows during the shutdown as well as the last quarter of its fiscal year.
Pollstar tracks attendance across the top 200 theatres worldwide each year based on gross sales and the number of tickets sold.
About the Florida Theatre
The Florida Theatre is a 1,865-seat historic theatre located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, that first opened its doors on April 8, 1927, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The Florida Theatre Performing Arts Center, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1987 to manage, program, and preserve the historic Florida Theatre in a public/private partnership with the City of Jacksonville, which owns the building. The Florida Theatre is Season Sponsored by Community First Credit Union.
