Spring movies, performances cost about $12 per attendee
Carolina Productions spent thousands of dollars last semester on comedy and musical acts, including many that were attended by fewer than 100 students.
The group shelled out nearly $177,000 in all on events, including movies, attended by 14,680 students. That works out to an average ticket price of $12.06, up about 50 cents from Fall 2012.
The spring number was skewed upward somewhat because card readers at Project Condom and Birdcage, normally two of CP’s largest events, malfunctioned, returning numbers lower than usual, CP President Erik Telford said.
The spring lineup brought a few big names to campus, including Saturday Night Live head writer Seth Meyers and chart-topping country singer Chris Young, both of whom brought out hordes of students.
“Big comedy shows and concerts are usually our biggest draws,” Telford said.
Young, the most expensive act, cost $40,000 and brought in 1,000 students, an average of $40 per student who swiped in to the event.
“We try to keep it around the price of what a normal person would pay for these events,” Telford said.
But other events brought fewer students and higher average costs. The second Spoken Word Wednesday, which hosted slam poet Gina Loring, cost $4,000 and drew just 37 students — nearly $110 apiece.
That was the most expensive event of the semester on a per-person basis, but others carried steep price tags as well.
Only 85 students came to an African drum and dance performance that cost $7,000, or $82.35 each. Comedian Ahmed Ahmed’s $5,000 show pulled in 63 students at $79.37 each. Campus MovieFest cost $15,000 and had 208 students participate, $72.12 apiece.
Telford said events like those are being rethought or cut because of their low attendance.
“We took [the low numbers] as a sign that we maybe shouldn’t be having so many of those kinds of events,” Telford said. “Not that many students desire to go or have it as a suggestion for us to book.”
After each show, students who swipe their CarolinaCards on entry are sent a survey that aims to gauge how the acts did. CP uses that information when it decides what acts to schedule in upcoming semesters.
CP’s best-attended feature is also its cheapest per student: movies in the Russell House Theater. Last semester, 22,000 students went to movies, costing CP an average of $2.33.
Other popular events cost more. More than 1,300 students saw Meyers perform, costing $26.78 each; nearly 1,000 saw “Parks and Recreation” funnyman Nick Offerman’s raunchy performance, at $20.28 each; and 246 went to see author Jenni Schaefer talk, at $12.20 each.