Guide
What it costs a community theatre to sell a ticket
Volunteer houses ask what tickets cost to sell, and whether cheap means a monthly fee or a cut of the door. Places charges nothing until a reserved seat sells, then one dollar.
The search is usually “cheapest tickets.” The question underneath it is what your house actually pays to put a production on sale.
Three deals get called cheap, and they are not the same deal.
A monthly subscription is rent. You pay it in January when nothing is on sale and the only thing happening in the building is a read-through. A percentage of face is a tax that grows: it takes more from a $40 Saturday than from a $15 student seat, for identical work. A flat charge per seat is a door charge. It costs nothing when nothing sells.
Work out which one you are being quoted before you compare the numbers, because a small percentage and a small monthly can add up to more than either looked like.
The Places number
Tools are free. You only pay at the door.
- Reserved seat: $1 to Places.
- General admission: free for small events for a limited time.
- Comps and free tickets: $0. A house seat is not a sale.
If your spring production never sells a reserved seat, we never make a dime. That is the deal I would want if it were my kids on that stage.
A dollar is still a dollar
Volunteer houses have been burned by “free,” and they are right to be suspicious of it. Free platforms that quietly ask the patron for a tip, or add a service charge at the last screen, are not free. Somebody paid. Usually a grandmother, on a phone, in the parking lot.
So we are not going to tell you a dollar is nothing. It is a dollar. It is printed on this page, it is the same dollar on a $15 seat and a $40 seat, and there is no monthly line underneath it. Ask any vendor to state their number that plainly, then compare.
Cheap is also the week of
A low fee on a page that dies during tech week is not cheap. Neither is a volunteer rebuilding will-call by hand at 6:30 because the list she printed at lunch went stale. Neither is money that arrives after strike when the lighting invoice was due opening night.
That is the rest of the real cost: when the ticket page dies, who is actually selling at the door, and who holds the money.
If you want a named vendor’s published fee next to that dollar, Compare does the arithmetic for you. The calculator opens at a $25 ticket, the middle of what community theatres actually charge. Sourced house-size, budget, and fee-card figures live on Community theatre statistics 2026.
Put the show on sale
How a community theatre sells tickets is the order of work. Apply is the form. Name the production first.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Places charge to sell a community theatre ticket?
- Tools are free. Places earns a dollar when a reserved seat sells. General admission is free for small events for a limited time. Comps and free tickets are $0.
- Is there a monthly fee?
- No. If the production never sells a reserved seat, Places does not earn. Dark months cost you nothing.
- Is the dollar on us or on the patron?
- It is one dollar per reserved seat, printed, and we are not going to call that free. What we will not do is bury it or move it around so it stops looking like a dollar.
- How do we start if we need cheap tickets for a small house?
- Apply and name the production. General admission is the default house if nobody has measured the room.