Another major exhibition at Wellington’s $180 million convention centre has failed to break even, with the council refusing to say exactly how many people visited it.
Last July RNZ reported the first two major exhibitions at Tākina, Jurassic World by Brickman and Marvel: Earth’s Mightiest Exhibition failed to either break even or reach their target visitor numbers.
The Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder ran from 1 June to 28 October and featured props from the BBC sci-fi show which first aired in 1963.
Its almost as if convention centres are a boondoggle and nearly everywhere run at a loss.
Are there enough people around who care about these IPs to pay money to see movie props?
It would seem not.
It’s almost as if extraneous spending has dropped significantly for the majority of people the last few years for totally unrelated reasons.
I would have gone to one or two of them had I known about it (and assuming the price wasn’t ridiculous).
I wend to the brickman exhibit with the kids, the price was quite reasonable.
My work mate just went to the Dr Who one; not sure about the costs.
But we both had to travel from Taupo; and stay/eat/entertain in Wellington. The ticket price to get into the event was negligible on the total cost of the trip. So it is not 100% on the event to make money, money is brought into the CBD/region.
Also; were the projected visitor numbers reasonable. The economy is in a bit of a shambles with the current government trying to bludgeon us back to the 80’s.
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2024/marvel-earths-mightiest-exhibition/wellington
More than I’d be willing to pay. Dr Who was the same price.
@Ilovethebomb @Dave I waited until Dr. Who exhibit prices were discounted before I went. I’m sure they will do the same for the Marvel exhibit.
Hmm I’d pay that. It costs me $80+ to take the family to McDonald’s, and I don’t even like McDonald’s.
I think this is about the going price for this sort of thing.
I think it’s not the going price for this sort of thing, because people don’t seem to be going to this sort of thing.
The law of supply and demand says that if they don’t have enough customers for their product, they have to either lower the price of the product, or stop selling it.
Yeah you’re right, but the low demand may have been due to no one knowing it was on. If it was $20 it doesn’t help if people don’t know it’s happening.
Alternatively, they might not have made a profit because they spent too much on it.
I’m not sure if I was just living under a rock, but I had no idea any of these things were happening last year.
There was a lot of advertising around the CBD, from memory, and a bit of social media.
Although they probably could have done more.
Hmm I don’t remember seeing anything in the CBD, though I wasn’t up that end of town. And I guess it’s my fault for not using mainstream social media.
Plus ad blockers, don’t watch ads on TV, got a no junkmail sign on my letterbox. I’m not sure how they were supposed to tell me about it but I kinda expect other people to talk about it and I’ll learn from word of mouth I guess.
clearly, they have a publicity problem, if we only hear about them when it’s too late.
