War Horse credited with boosting National Theatre popularity
Story by Jack Foley
THE stage version of War Horse has been credited with boosting box office coffers at the National Theatre and will continue to be at the forefront of the venue’s attraction to audiences over the coming years.
In announcing the theatre’s plans for 2012, artistic director Nicholas Hytner said on Wednesday (January 25, 2012) that the venue was on course to expect “audiences of more than 3 million by 2014”.
In the year 2010-11, the National Theatre’s combined audience – including cinema broadcasts – was 1.6m and this is set to rise as the NT continued to offer “unprecedented access across the country and across the globe” with its transfers, tours and broadcasts.
War Horse continues to be at the forefront of this charge and, by the end of 2012, will have productions in London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne.
A national US tour begins in June 2012 while a nine-month UK tour commences in September 2013. The NT also has a small stake in Steven Spielberg’s film version which is now a UK box office hit.
As if to emphasise the continued success of the production, Hytner also pointed to figures that showed the West End production alone had generated £13.9 million at the NT box office. It first opened in 2007.
In total, the NT made more than £70m in 2010-2011, with 48 per cent of this coming from box office receipts, tours and the West End run of War Horse – although Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, which continues its London run while also opening on Broadway with original cast members James Corden, Oliver Chris and Jemima Rooper, has also proved another popular crowd-puller.
Find out more about 2012 productions at the NT