A comparative analysis of the ticket purchase behaviour of live theatre attendees versus film theatre attendees

Abstract

Afrikaans live theatre and Afrikaans film theatre often make use of the same actors, writers and producers; and the sustainability of these industries are dependent on the ticket purchases of a very specific and selective market segment. The purpose of this article was therefore to firstly determine the key factors that contribute to the ticket purchases of Afrikaans film theatre attendees to gain insights that apply to the film-industry specifically. Secondly, these factors were compared with the factors that contribute to Afrikaans live theatre ticket purchases to determine possible differences/similarities between these two types of theatre markets. This was done to explore possible options that better utilises the festival platform to increase the exposure of Afrikaans films. Two datasets were used in this article. The primary dataset for Afrikaans film theatre ticket purchases was obtained from a survey conducted at the KKNK in 2013. A secondary dataset for live theatre ticket purchases at the KKNK was acquired from a study by Botha (2011). An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 36 aspects contributing to Afrikaans film theatre ticket purchases, revealing five factors: Proudly Afrikaans, Production credentials, Quality facilities, Marketing and Leisure experience. Thereafter two confirmatory factor analyses consisting of 4 factors (Media/Marketing, Quality facilities, Credentials and Experience) were conducted on 20 overlapping aspects from the two datasets. A t-test revealed differences between the contributing factors of the two datasets. Afrikaans film theatre attendees are more influenced by Media, Quality facilities as well as the Experience; while live theatre attendees are more influenced by Credentials. Implications for the Afrikaans film theatre industry are consequently made.