Cork Opera House posts highest profit in six years thanks to record crowds
Record audience figures have helped Cork Opera House post its highest profit in six years, and its sixth profitable year in a row.
The 59th AGM of the country’s biggest producer of musical theatre was told yesterday that some 229,000 people attended 277 performances during the financial year to the end of March 2018.
The 31,000-strong boost in audience figures helped the venue record a profit of €312,761 — its highest in six years.
The surge in audience numbers is due in part to the staging of a second summer production last year and an extended pantomime run last Christmas.
Board chairman Tim Healy said the theatre’s success has come through a combination of attracting some of the best touring shows and acts as well as producing its own world-class standard of work.
“The summer months of 2017 saw well over 40,000 people come through our doors,” he said.
“These people bring life to the city and have a hugely positive impact on the businesses of the area. We live in a thriving city and Cork Opera House contributes significantly to its culture and vitality.”
Mr Healy said a new collaboration with University College Cork will strengthen both organisations and their respective reach and impact.
The posting of yet another profitable year, combined with surging audience figures, underlines again the remarkable turnaround of a venue which was on the brink of financial collapse in 2010.
Within weeks of announcing a €300,000 loss for the financial year ending March 2010, the Opera House closed for three months as part of a radical cost-cutting and survival plan.
By 2013, it had posted a €260,000 profit, its first profit in five years and its largest in almost a decade. The financial recovery has continued every year since.
Yesterday’s AGM heard the last financial year was a landmark year for Cork Opera House, which has now established itself as one of the country’s leading producers of large-scale work.
It produced two summer shows in 2017 — ProdiJIG: The Revolution and the musical Annie — staged an extended Christmas pantomime run, and held a home-grown music festival, Right Here, Right Now.
It also embarked on the first phase of significant upgrade works to the theatre, which focused mostly on back-of-house work.
The work, which is being undertaken thanks to financial support from the city and county councils and the Department of Arts, will continue over the coming years to complete essential maintenance of the building.
Opera House chief executive Eibhlín Gleeson said the financial results reaffirm the theatre’s position at the centre of arts, culture and entertainment in Cork.
“Last year, our production of Annie was seen by over 30,000 people and our pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was seen by over 55,000 people,” she said.
“We have built a relationship of trust with our patrons and we will continue to work hard to deliver good results both financially and artistically.”
