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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

DMA clocks 1 million visitors thanks to King Tut, sorta

By Sarah Blaskovich

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DALLAS — Lest you got sucked into reading how un-loved the King Tut exhibit was, the Dallas Museum of Art has revealed that for the first time, 1 million visitors have come to see the Boy King, or other stuff*, since October 2008.

Here's the thing: When the King Tut exhibit was first scheduled to come to Dallas, it was a really big deal. Then, when it arrived, the love affair continued. But it turned out that Dallas couldn't compete with the floods of people who visited King Tut when he arrived in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Philadelphia. Our own Teresa Gubbins reluctantly reported the story, hoping more people would show up before they shipped Tut off to San Francisco.

Numerically speaking

$180-$220 million streamed into Dallas as a direct result

$2 million spent to advertise the King Tut exhibit

1 million people visited the DMA since October 2008

664,000 came for King Tut

110,000 of them were students

26,000 households are now members of the DMA -- a record

10,000 hotel rooms were booked for overnighters

Sources: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Business Journal

But then, the Dallas Business Journal shared recently that Tut set a record in Dallas. That's sort of true, but it's more appropriate to say that the museum set a record, and Tut helped.

"Either way, we are thrilled to be able to report that the Museum has reached a historic high in attendance, and that the King Tut show reigns as the most popular exhibition in our history," said Jill Bernstein at the Dallas Museum of Art.

*The numbers for the DMA's attendance are a little fuzzy. The 1 million people who came to the museum didn't all come for Tut -- in fact, only 664,000 of the visitors attended that specific exhibit. But, the DMA has never had 1 million visitors in a fiscal year in their 106-year history, and they've now reached that high mark mid-June. And, if you're counting, their fiscal year ain't over until September 30, 2009, so we expect more good news come Fall.

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Comments

AnnMarie Wilson

AnnMarie Wilson Verified

Ahh the old corporate 'SPIN'... what would we do without it....

Oh yeah, learn the truth.

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Pavel Lishin

Pavel Lishin Verified

Well, at least they got a million visitors. Higher museum attendance is always nice.

Hey, maybe I'll swing by at some point, too, now that the "King Tut's Bathroom Drawer & Contents of The Boxes Stacked In The Back of the Attic" exhibit has moved on.

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

AnnMarie Wilson

AnnMarie Wilson Verified

Some friends went to see the exhibit - at discounted prices. They were not impressed.

Remember the Ramses exhibit at Fair Park? I was a volunteer for that for the run of the show. 3x a week, 4 hour shifts.

That was one very successful Show! They treated the volunteers really very well... and the closing party for us was simply amazing. We felt appreciated.

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Travis Bush

Travis Bush Verified

The King Tut exhibit was planned very poorly..especially the last room with the cacophony of video presentations all playing at the same time...EPIC FAIL.

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

alexander troup

alexander troup Verified

They clocked in 200.000 kids, from schools... and then some more folks, but that 9 months was not good, and they did squeeze some old Dallas money to pull it out of the blues...hey it was all about Money...and spending money and bragging about gold and money....The mummys coffin was not even there too...while...the boy king has had a great life, let him rest in peace and give the money to charity...A/T, Confussing world we live in..GOD AND MONEY....

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

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