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Thousands of people visited the theatre for the first time as part of the Donmar's "high-risk" season of shows in the West End.
The star-studded season at Wyndham's theatre, which included Jude Law's debut as Hamlet, played to 98 per cent paying capacity - or full houses if free tickets for critics and young people are taken into account.
A review of the season, which ran from last September to last month, published today shows that 13.5 per cent of the audiences were booking for the first time.
Hamlet, directed by Michael Grandage, played to a 99 per cent capacity with first-time theatre-goers making up 10 per cent of the audience.
Grandage, the theatre's director, said the results were "thrilling". "There's a rumour that whenever you bring your ticket prices down, the same people buy but get them cheaper. So I was genuinely keen to discover whether it did actually encourage people who don't go to the theatre to come - and it did," he said.
Every performance had about 130 tickets at £10 available on a first-come- first-served basis and the highest price was £32.50. The Donmar had to hit 85 per cent capacity just to break even.
Grandage admitted that the plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov and Japanese writer Yukio Mishima had succeeded in challenging the prevalence of the musical partly because of the casts led by Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench and Derek Jacobi.
But other producers could learn from the extensive educational work that brought in 9,000 school children. Hamlet sold around 2,800 tickets to schools. The season also sold large numbers of tickets to people with disabilities - around 1,000 for each play.
The Donmar had successfully contributed to the debate about straight plays in the West End, Grandage said. "Without doubt, a year and a half ago, the debate was really ferocious with lots of people saying there were only going to be musicals. That debate has certainly changed. Now there are straight plays in abundance."
But the Donmar is not planning more work in the West End. Grandage said: "If we did, what would we achieve second time around? It had a massive effect in introducing people to the Donmar as an organisation."
This summer, the Society of London Theatre reported that the West End box office was up eight per cent year-on-year.
