The Stage

Qdos records bumper ticket sales in 2006/7 season

Published Tuesday 13 February 2007 at 13:40 by Alistair Smith

Pantomime producer Qdos Entertainment has announced that its 2006/07 season has grossed £15.5 million in ticket sales, marking a 15% increase on its performance last year.

The season also recorded a slight up-turn in attendances with the company’s 20 shows - the same number as in 2005/06 - playing to around 1.2 million people across the UK. Stars of Qdos productions included Julian Clary in Northampton, Brian Conley in Birmingham, Jim Davidson in Dartford and Nigel Havers making his panto debut in Wycombe.

Qdos managing director Nick Thomas commented: “We had a good season which beat our targets. Birmingham was a record-breaker - for the first time ever a production took more than £2 million and Bradford was the best year in the ten we have done there and Crawley was exceptional. There were some really huge uplifts. Also we have some great shows lined up for next year and we are expecting to stage a similar number of productions.”

Meanwhile, rival panto producers First Family Entertainment recorded a 33% increase in ticket sales over its nine productions this season, with one more show than in its inaugural year.