Distancing, mask, vaccine passport: health measures allowed the return of shows and the public to theaters in 2021, but they were far from reaching pre-pandemic levels, reveals the Observatory of Culture and communications from the Quebec Institute of Statistics in a new publication.
Posted at 12:30 p.m.
There were indeed 40% fewer performances than the average between 2015 and 2019, and 1.9 million spectators attended, much less than the average of 7.6 million between 2015 and 2019.
Eloquent figure: despite the closure of theaters for a good part of the year from mid-March, we still counted 1.4 million admissions in 2020. This is barely 500,000 less than in 2021, where they were open, but with the application of sanitary measures, for almost the whole year. This is reflected in ticketing revenues, which have fallen from an annual average of 287 million between 2015 and 2019, to 44 million in 2020 and barely more in 2021, i.e. 62 million.
Unsurprisingly, since travel between countries was limited and did not allow the arrival of foreign artists, Quebec shows accounted for 96% of all performances in 2021, attracted 92% of total attendance and 81% of ticketing revenue.
The audience was obviously up compared to 2020 in all regions of Quebec, and down everywhere compared to pre-pandemic figures. But it was in Montreal that this decline was the highest compared to the average from 2015 to 2019, i.e. 82%.