Despite a slight fall in audience attendance, the West End theatre have set record box office sales in 2011 for the eighth year running.
According to figures released by the Society of London Theatre (SoLT), London's theatres enjoyed box office sales of £528m last year, a 3.1% increase from 2010.
'The figures show the west end is very healthy and full of great shows that audiences are keen to see,' said producer Mark Rubinstein, president of SoLT. 'There has been year-on-year growth for eight years, which is very encouraging.'
However, the slump in audience attendance can be attributed to the arrival of major shows that closed theatres for long periods of time.
The arrival of popular musicals including The Wizard of Oz, Shrek, Ghost and Matilda resulted in a number of 'dark' weeks where theatres were closed to set up for the shows.
Last year saw 146 dark weeks, while there was just 85 in 2010.
'We had fewer performances because a lot of the big theatres changed over so their were new shows coming in to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the Palladium, the Piccadilly and Cambridge. Big shows do take quite a time to get in' said Rubinstein.
One surprisingly popular show, Jerusalem stood out in last year's revenues. With two sold out West End runs, the show had people camping throughout the night in the hopes of purchasing on-the-day tickets.
The New London Theatre provided lucrative streams of revenue with numerous sold out dates of the ever popular War Horse.
There was £88m in VAT receipts for the treasury in the past year, highlighting the crucial importance of the Arts to the UK economy.
With 2012 being the year of the Olympics, there are mixed predictions as to how profitable the West End will be this summer. Andrew Lloyd Webber has made his opinion on summer sales clear, predicting a 'bloodbath' with plans to close three of his West End theatres, while the National Theatre are taking advanced bookings and remain optimistic.
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