Before it was known as a “parade” of gorgeous fashion designs performed by famous faces in Hollywood, the Met Gala used to be a fundraiser for the Costume Institute. The Met Museum consists of many different departments, of which the Costume Institute is the only one that is self-funded. Proceeds will be used to care for the exhibition collection including more than 33,000 pieces of clothing, accessories, jewelry and documents documenting the history of fashion from the 1400s to the present.
However, the organizer – Vogue magazine – has many ways to make money from the huge appeal of this event. The 2024 Met Gala raised more than $26 million, a record amount — even for a party that has become an annual gathering for fashion celebrities, the museum said. cinema, television, sports, music, business and more. This is a $4 million increase over last year’s event total and more than double the amount the event raised a decade ago, in 2014.
By comparison, the New York City Ballet’s most recent fall gala grossed just $4 million, and the American Museum of Natural History’s gala brought in $2.5 million. Even The Met’s other events cannot compare. Last year’s event raised nearly $22 million, while the Met’s 2023 Arts & Artists Gala raised $4.4 million.
According to the New York Times, the gala last Monday night sold tickets at a starting price of $350,000 per table of 10 people for dinner. An individual ticket costs $75,000 — compared to $50,000 last year and $35,000 in 2022. The entire program is overseen as usual by Vogue magazine boss Anna Wintour, who attended as host alongside Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Zendaya and Chris Hemsworth.
The guest list was a secret until the last minute. Unlike other cultural fundraisers, like the Metropolitan Opera gala or the Frick Collection Young Fellows Ball, the Met Gala is invite-only. The criteria for being on the guest list have a lot to do with reputation, achievements and beauty. “Mogul” Wintour has the final say on all invitations and attendees.
That means that even if you donate a lot of money to the museum, you’re not necessarily invited. And even if a business or organization buys an entire table for a dinner party, they are not allowed to choose all 10 people who will sit at that table. They will have to remove the names of any guests that Ms. Wintour and Vogue do not approve of. According to a spokesperson for the Costume Institute, this year, as well as in 2023, about 400 people will be selected.
Celebrities usually don’t buy their own tickets. Instead, brands like Chloé or Tory Burch buy the whole table with a starting price of 350,000 USD and choose the most famous names to invite to attend. For these brands, the amount of online and media attention focused on the gala makes it a powerful advertising opportunity.
The gala also raked in big bucks from sponsors, this year Condé Nast, luxury fashion brand Loewe and social media giant TikTok, which is facing a potential ban in the United States. Ky. TikTok declined to say how much it paid to sponsor the event, and previous sponsors including Apple and Instagram have also been tight-lipped about their contributions. But Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of investment group Blackstone, is said to have contributed about $5 million as a sponsor of the gala in 2018.
In fact, since the 2021 gala grossed $16.4 million, the Met Gala has become one of the most talked about events of the year – not only the print press but also fashion magazines were stunned. overwhelmed by the coverage of the event on digital media. “There are very few other events that raise similar amounts of money,” said Rachel Feinberg, a fundraising consultant in New York City. The Met has found a great formula to become a profit machine.”
Of course, it’s not about selling tickets, but the most “profitable” time is on the red carpet, when Vogue sells advertising space. Met Gala benefits from social networks when the event deploys livestreaming on a long line of social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It is known that Vogue charges about 1 million USD for 2 6-second shows in a 2-hour time frame, along with tools to spread media through KOLs and channels. Regarding this, Vogue refused to make any comments.
Another source of revenue is from Vogue’s website, which not only updates the latest live news but also organizes a vote in which the public can award prizes for their favorite outfits. Advertisements on this website are also sold at high prices. Besides, in recent years, the Met Gala red carpet has created a media value of 543 million USD, higher than the Super Bowl, with the livestream session attracting 16.5 million views, while videos about the event content pulled in 8.2 million views in the next three days.
In 2019, Met Gala raised $15 million. In 2021, the number was recorded at 16.5 million. In the past 5 years, this event has raised more than 70 million USD and in just 2 decades, more than 200 million USD is a milestone the Met has easily surpassed. Meanwhile, to organize the event, approximately 4 million USD is more than enough money.
In particular, Vogue certainly did not miss any opportunity to take advantage of this event. The television or documentary element is one of the opportunities Vogue has tried. In particular, the documentary “First Monday in May” (2016) covering the 2015 Met Gala earned more than 1 million USD in theaters worldwide, according to The Numbers. Besides, every year the famous American cable television channel E! was also the contractor for broadcasting the entire evening of the event, but Vogue said they did not earn any revenue from that.
