Monday, December 29, 2008

King Tut exhibit at Dallas Museum of Art not selling as many tickets as expected

Dallas News

When King Tut rolled into town in October, Bonnie Pitman, the new director of the Dallas Museum of Art, predicted that 1 million visitors would see the show, with ticket buyers traveling from hundreds, even thousands of miles away.

A banner heralded the King Tut exhibit's October arrival, but then an economic wrinkle developed.

"I don't see this as a huge moneymaker," she said at the time. "Our goal is to break even."

But neither Ms. Pitman nor the international promoters of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" expected the financial crisis that has the global economy in a tailspin.

So how is the boy king doing?

"Like every institution," Ms. Pitman said this past week, "we have been impacted by the economic climate."

The Tut exhibit has drawn more than 270,000 visitors during its first three months, Ms. Pitman said, with 90,000 of those being schoolchildren, who, like other large groups, purchased discounted tickets.

With less than five months to go before the show closes May 17, the DMA would have to draw 730,000 to reach the 1 million mark. That would be an average of 146,000 a month, which exceeds its current average of around 90,000 a month.

It is unclear what the numbers could mean for the DMA financially, because contract terms for the exhibit have been kept confidential. But Ms. Pitman and others remain optimistic about attendance.


See the above page for the full story.

5 comments:

Rhio Barnhart said...

Andie - No one is spending any money here. Stores are going out of business. People are losing jobs all around.
Tickets to the show are expensive for those in this situation.
I just hope the Tut exhibit makes it to California. My kid are looking forward to it.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir or Madam,

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Robot Nine said...

Wow, I like a putz missed seeing Australopithecus Lucy in my own town, guess I can now fly to Ethiopia! I want to travel to Dallas to see this.
Hope you get a chance to vist Robot Nine today and play the Picture puzzle, nobody has won yet.
Alan
Robot Nine

Anonymous said...

The museum is now offering some discount packages for families, etc., so hopefully things will pick up. I'm planning to take my family as part of their Christmas, so that should up the ante a little. :)

Anonymous said...

The Dallas Museum of Art gave almost all their advertising dollars to CBS TV - ch.11 because their media agency owner is married to the sales manager at CBS 11. CBS 11 is the distant 4th rated station in the market and has a very old dempgraphic. Also, with the deal the exhibit got small round kiosk advertising, big deal. The agency missed the boat and didn't advertise efficiently.

Also, the Tut image in the ads is not in exhibit. Many of the cool Tut object are not there. Not marketed properly.