The Stage

Qdos panto season outperforms previous year

Published Monday 8 March 2010 at 15:25 by Alistair Smith

Qdos Entertainment has revealed that it has grossed £18.5 million for the 2009/10 pantomime season, up £700,000 on the previous year, despite the snowy weather conditions.

Many pantomimes across the UK reported that they were struggling with the adverse weather conditions over the winter, but Qdos has revealed that it was only forced to cancel one performance out of a total of more than 1,300 and was able to replace this one instance in Bradford with an extra show.

“We’ve had another outstanding Qdos pantomime season,” said Michael Harrison, managing director of Qdos’ pantomime division. “In spite of the current economic climate, pantomime sales, compared the previous year, rose by 4% across the 22 shows we staged throughout the UK. For the first time ever we had five theatres exceed £1 million in ticket sales before the season started last December, with a further three productions exceeding that milestone by the end of the season.

“Over 1.2 million people attended a Qdos pantomime and the season grossed over £18.5 million at the box office. It takes over 1,000 people to bring our pantomime season to life and I would like to thank them all for producing yet another record- breaking year for Qdos Pantomimes,” Harrison added.

Qdos Entertainment is the UK’s leading pantomime producer. Its shows this year featured performers including John Barrowman, Joe Pasquale and Craig Revel Horwood.