A mediamétrie study carried out in June shows that the health crisis has profoundly changed cultural habits: 48 % of French people do not go or more to the show and 23 % go there less often.
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Theaters are painlessly recovering from the impact of the health crisis on cultural practices. Since their reopening, on May 19, 2021, the performance halls, like the cinemas, recorded a drop in their attendance. Why did a part of the spectators not come back? What are the brakes and motivations to take the path of theaters? How to reconnect with the public before the COVVI-19?
To try to answer these questions, the association for the support of the private theater (ASTP, which brings together seventy rooms in Paris and in the region, and around thirty producers) ordered in Médiamétrie a survey on “The French and their perception of the theater”, produced with a representative sample of 1,500 Internet users, from June 17 to 28. This is the first time that this type of study has been conducted, and it is clear that part of the traditional public is no longer there.
Overall, in the last twelve months, 53 % of French people attended a live performance – concert, theater, circus, one- (wo) man -show, musical, dance, opera – and 27 % left In the theater, whether they frequent private or public halls. But 71 % of internet users interviewed have declared to go less to the theater since their reopening. In detail, 48 % do not go or no longer and 23 % go there less often.
“younger public”
The reasons for this disaffection reveal an audience marked by changes in habits linked to the pandemic, but also confronted with the problem of purchasing power. So, to the question: “Why are you not going to the theater or are you going less often?”, The price of places, considered too expensive, comes at the top of the answers, followed by the reflex of “stay at home since the health crisis “and the lack of proximity of a place.
Conversely, the 29 % of spectators who go as much or more often to the theater as before justify their motivation by the desire to “leave home and your daily life”, to “enjoy a moment With [s] is close “and to” feel and share emotions “.
Another striking data of this investigation, the profile of the spectators evolves. “Since the COVVID, traditional theater audiences (women and seniors) are no longer there. We are witnessing a decrease in baby boomers, which previously carried the dynamics of attendance, notes Anne-Claire Gourbier, general delegate of ASTP. Nevertheless, the good news is the emergence of a younger audience nucleus. “The average age is now 41.2 years, 58 % are men and 38 % belong to higher socio -professional categories.
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