This week we picked a story from the Wall Street Journal about the Vegas Sphere, which by all accounts delivers a spectacular experience. The project was built for $2.3 billion, about a billion dollars over budget, and completed in 2023. The Sphere has been a remarkable success, now the highest-grossing arena in the world —”$379 million on 1.7 million tickets sold last year, according to Pollstar.” And a smaller version is now planned for Washington DC.
That got me to thinking: just what are the various culture industries worth and how do they compare? Every year we hear about debates to cut or raise the budgets of the NEA NEH ($207 million each this year). So how does this funding compare not just in the non-profit arts world, but in the larger creative economy? So I decided to do some digging.
Most arts policy debates happen at one scale. Most cultural activity happens at another. It turns out the gap between those two scales — between the world that the arts, funding fights, and nonprofit board meetings live in, and the world where most people actually encounter culture — is so large that it’s worth pausing to measure.
What follows is a set of tables. The premise is simple: if you put the budgets of the largest US nonprofit arts institutions next to the revenues of the companies that produce most of the culture Americans consume, you start to see why debates inside arts circles often feel disconnected from the broader gravitational field of culture. They are.
Three things worth surfacing before the numbers and then I’ll get out of the way.
The largest US nonprofit arts institution is the Smithsonian, with about a $1.1 billion total budget — roughly 70 percent of which is federal appropriation. That figure is only about 3 percent of what the Disney Parks division earned in revenue last year. Disney Parks alone — not Disney’s whole company, just the parks — pulls in more revenue than the entire global recorded music industry.
The European model is genuinely different in scale and structure. State subsidy is not a top-up to ticket sales there; it’s the foundation. The Vienna State Opera covers about 55 percent of its budget from public money. London’s Tate Museum’s most recent annual report shows public grants falling, deficit budgets, and “self-generated income not increasing post-pandemic at the same pace as the cost base.” The story is the same across the continent, with the dial turned to different points on the public/private spectrum.
So something to consider: A lot of what we call “culture policy” in the US is policy for less than 0.5 percent of the cultural economy by revenue. Americans for the Arts puts the nonprofit arts and culture sector at $151.7 billion in total economic activity and 2.6 million jobs. Disney alone employs 233,000 people. The NFL did $23 billion in revenue last year, by itself larger than the operational spending of every US nonprofit arts organization combined. None of this means the nonprofit arts don’t matter. It means that when we argue about $207 million in NEA appropriations, we are arguing about a rounding error in the broader cultural economy. Perhaps the conversation should grow up to the size of the field it’s trying to describe.
This isn’t a complaint, it’s an attempt at a map, and my arbitrary version at that. I think you make different decisions about where to put energy when you can see where things actually are.
1. The 10 largest US nonprofit arts/cultural institutions
Most recent fiscal year available (FY2023 or FY2024). Operating expenses unless noted.
| Rank | Institution | Annual Operating Expenses | FY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smithsonian Institution | $1.09B (total federal appropriation + trust) / $892.8M S&E | 2024 |
| 2 | Metropolitan Museum of Art | $477.9M | 2024 |
| 3 | J. Paul Getty Trust | $409M | 2024 |
| 4 | Metropolitan Opera Association | ~$300–320M (estimate; FY24 reported $46.9M deficit) | 2024 |
| 5 | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) | ~$269M | 2024 |
| 6 | American Museum of Natural History | $258.2M | 2024 |
| 7 | Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts | ~$235M | 2024 |
| 8 | Boston Symphony Orchestra | $124M total / $99M programs | 2024 |
| 9 | Carnegie Hall | $100.6M | 2024 |
| 10 | San Francisco Opera | $91M | 2023–24 |
Notes on this table. The Smithsonian is technically a federal trust instrumentality, not a 501(c)(3); about 70% of its budget is federal appropriation. The Getty Trust runs almost entirely off endowment draw — it’s a different financial creature than peers funded primarily by tickets, philanthropy, and government. Lincoln Center, the campus organization, is separate from the Met Opera, NY Philharmonic, NY City Ballet, and Lincoln Center Theater, which are independent constituent tenants with their own budgets. The Met Opera’s FY24 audited statements were not fully released at the time of writing; so the figure here is an estimate based on prior years and reported deficit. Also: I omitted the Kennedy Center, which in prior years most certainly would have made the list. But who knows really what the numbers are now.
Combined top-10 operating spend: roughly $3.5–3.8 billion. That is approximately 11% of Disney Parks’ annual revenue.
Sources: Smithsonian FY2024; Met Museum 990 (ProPublica); Getty Financials; Met Opera Annual Reports; MoMA FY24; AMNH Financial Statements; Lincoln Center 990 (ProPublica); BSO Annual Reports; Carnegie Hall Financials; SF Opera Finances.
2. The largest European arts institutions
European data is harder to assemble cleanly than US data. Different countries report on different fiscal calendars, in different currencies, and many institutions are units of larger municipal or state cultural enterprises rather than freestanding entities. This is a partial list — institutions where current-year figures are publicly reported. The point is the order of magnitude and the funding mix, not a strict ranking.
| Institution | Country | Annual Budget | % Public Funding | FY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louvre | France | ~€280M (~$300M) | ~80–90% | 2022–23 |
| British Museum | UK | ~£180M (~$225M) | ~70% | 2023–24 |
| Tate (combined galleries) | UK | £153.8M expenditure (~$195M) | ~37% grant aid | 2023–24 |
| Royal Ballet & Opera (ROH) | UK | ~£135M (~$170M) | ~25% Arts Council | 2023–24 |
| Opéra National de Paris | France | ~€220M (~$235M) | ~45% (€99.8M state subsidy) | 2023 |
| Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna) | Austria | €145M (~$155M) | ~55% (€79M subsidy) | 2023–24 |
| National Gallery (London) | UK | ~£95M (~$120M) | majority public | 2023–24 |
| Victoria & Albert Museum | UK | ~£110M (~$140M) | majority public | 2023–24 |
| Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich) | Germany | not separately reported (unit of Bavarian state cultural budget) | very high | – |
| Rijksmuseum | Netherlands | ~€60M (~$65M) | majority public | 2023 |
Notes. Currency conversion uses approximate 2024 averages. German state opera houses (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden) typically don’t publish freestanding budgets — their funding is woven into state cultural appropriations, which can be substantial but aren’t directly comparable. La Scala, the Prado, and the Reina Sofia were not included due to data quality issues for 2024. Russian institutions excluded.
The headline pattern: the largest European institutions are smaller in absolute terms than their US peers, but they receive significantly higher direct public support. The Louvre’s budget is roughly 60 percent of the Met Museum’s; the difference is that the Met has to raise nearly all of its operating revenue from ticket revenue, philanthropy, endowment, and city support, while the Louvre’s salaries, security, and maintenance are paid by the French state.
Sources: Tate ARA 2023–24; British Museum ARA 2023–24; Royal Ballet & Opera Annual Report; Vienna State Opera reporting; Opéra National de Paris; Louvre.
3. The size of culture industries (global revenue, 2024)
| Industry | Global Revenue | US Revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video games | $182.7B | ~$47.6B | Newzoo Global Games Market Report 2024 |
| Book publishing (all) | ~$90–100B | ~$28B | AAP |
| Streaming video / SVOD | ~$70–75B | ~$25–30B | Industry estimates |
| TV (US, ad + sub bundles) | – | ~$120–130B | Nielsen / industry data |
| Film – global box office | $30B | ~$8.7B (US/Canada) | Gower Street Analytics |
| Recorded music | $29.6B | ~$10B | IFPI Global Music Report 2025 |
| Live music / concerts | ~$30–35B | ~$15B | Live Nation / Pollstar |
| US newspapers / magazines | – | ~$25–30B | NAM/MPA |
| Podcasting | ~$2–3B | ~$1.5–2B | IAB |
| US Broadway gross (incl. touring) | – | ~$1.9B (2023–24 season) | Broadway League |
| US nonprofit arts & culture (organizational spending) | – | $73.3B | AEP6 |
| US arts & cultural production (ACPSA, all sectors) | – | $1.17 trillion (4.2% of GDP) | BEA ACPSA 2023 |
What the list reveals. Video games alone are larger than recorded music, global theatrical film, and live music combined. Book publishing — which we routinely talk about as a sector “in trouble” — is roughly three times the size of recorded music. The entire US nonprofit arts and culture sector’s organizational spending ($73.3B) is in the same range as global recorded music revenue, and smaller than US theme park spending. The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account‘s $1.17 trillion figure includes everything cultural — commercial film studios, streaming platforms, publishers, museums, performers — which is why it dwarfs every line item above it.
4. The 10 largest commercial culture companies (most recent FY)
| Rank | Company | Annual Revenue | FY | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walt Disney Company | $91.7B | 2024 | Includes parks ($34.1B), entertainment, sports |
| 2 | Comcast / NBCUniversal | $123.7B total / $36.5B NBCU media | 2024 | Mostly cable broadband; NBCU segment is the culture piece |
| 3 | Sony (entertainment segments) | ~$27.5B (Pictures + Music + Games) | FY24 (Mar 2025) | Full conglomerate ~$95B |
| 4 | Tencent (entertainment) | ~$22B (games + music + video) | 2024 | Conglomerate ~$93B |
| 5 | Warner Bros. Discovery | $39.3B | 2024 | Pure-play media |
| 6 | Netflix | $39.0B | 2024 | Pure-play streaming |
| 7 | Live Nation Entertainment | $23.2B | 2024 | Tickets + concerts + management |
| 8 | Paramount Global | $28.2B | 2024 | TV, film, streaming |
| 9 | Spotify | $14.1B | 2024 | Pure-play audio streaming |
| 10 | Universal Music Group | $11.8B | 2024 | Largest pure-play music co. |
Notes. Pure-play comparison is hard because most of these companies are conglomerates with mixed segments. Comcast is mostly broadband, not media. Sony is mostly electronics and finance. Tencent is mostly games and a Chinese super-app. Where possible, we’ve separated out the culture-relevant segment revenue with the conglomerate total flagged.
Disney alone — at $91.7B — produces more annual revenue than every US nonprofit arts and culture organization combined ($73.3B in organizational spending per AEP6). And that’s one company.
Sources: company 10-Ks, 20-Fs, and annual reports; Disney FY2024 Earnings.
5. The 10 highest-revenue sports teams (most recent reported)
This list mixes North American leagues and European football because they operate on different revenue models — the NFL’s revenue-sharing produces a tight cluster of teams in the $600M–$1.2B range, while European football’s commercial-first model creates a wider spread.
| Rank | Team | League | Annual Revenue | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dallas Cowboys | NFL | $1.22B | 2024 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | La Liga | €1.07B (~$1.16B) | 2023–24 |
| 3 | Manchester City | Premier League | €838M (~$905M) | 2023–24 |
| 4 | Paris Saint-Germain | Ligue 1 | €806M (~$870M) | 2023–24 |
| 5 | Manchester United | Premier League | €771M (~$832M) | 2023–24 |
| 6 | Bayern Munich | Bundesliga | €765M (~$826M) | 2023–24 |
| 7 | FC Barcelona | La Liga | €760M (~$820M) | 2023–24 |
| 8 | Liverpool | Premier League | €714M (~$770M) | 2023–24 |
| 9 | Los Angeles Rams | NFL | ~$700M (estimate) | 2024 |
| 10 | New York Giants / various NFL | NFL | ~$650–700M | 2024 |
Note. The Cowboys had an estimated $629M operating profit on $1.22B revenue last year — meaning the Cowboys’ profit alone was larger than the operating budget of every US nonprofit arts institution.
League-wide totals:
- NFL: $23B (2024)
- MLB: $12.1B (2024)
- NBA: $11.3B (2024)
- NHL: ~$6.6B (2023–24)
- Premier League: ~£6.3B / ~$8B (2023–24)
Sources: Forbes / Sportico NFL valuations 2025; Deloitte Football Money League 2025; Sportico: How NFL teams make money; MLB 2024 revenue.
6. The 10 most-attended theme parks (2024)
| Rank | Park | Operator / Location | 2024 Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magic Kingdom | Disney / Florida | 17.8M |
| 2 | Disneyland Park | Disney / California | 17.3M |
| 3 | Universal Studios Japan | Universal / Osaka | 16.0M |
| 4 | Tokyo Disneyland | OLC / Tokyo | ~15.8M |
| 5 | Shanghai Disneyland | Disney / Shanghai | 14.7M |
| 6 | Tokyo DisneySea | OLC / Tokyo | 12.6M |
| 7 | Chimelong Ocean Kingdom | Chimelong / China | ~11.5M |
| 8 | EPCOT | Disney / Florida | ~11.0M |
| 9 | Disney’s Hollywood Studios | Disney / Florida | ~10.9M |
| 10 | Disneyland Paris | Disney / France | ~9.8M |
Top 25 parks combined attendance: ~246 million (2024).
Disney’s 12 parks drew 140 million visitors globally in 2024 — about 34% of the top-25 total. For comparison: 140 million is about 50% more than the total annual attendance for every nonprofit performing arts and museum visit in the United States combined per AEP6 audience data.
Disney Parks division revenue (FY2024): $34.1 billion. That’s more than ten times the combined operating budgets of the ten largest US nonprofit arts institutions on the table above.
Sources: TEA Global Experience Index 2024; AECOM Theme Index; Disney FY2024 Earnings.
7. Jobs: nonprofit arts vs. commercial culture
| Sector | Jobs | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| All US arts and cultural production (commercial + nonprofit) | 5.4 million | BEA ACPSA 2023 |
| US nonprofit arts & culture sector (AEP6) | 2.6 million | Americans for the Arts AEP6 |
| Publishing industries (NAICS 511) | 891,000 | BLS |
| Motion picture & sound recording (NAICS 512) | 475,000 | BLS |
| Broadcasting (NAICS 515) | ~360,000 | BLS |
| Performing arts companies (NAICS 7111) | ~131,000 | BLS |
| Museums, historical sites (NAICS 7121) | ~127,000 | BLS |
| Disney (total employees) | 233,000 | Company filings, 2024 |
| Disney Parks (cast members, global) | ~156,000 | Company disclosures |
| Walt Disney World (Florida site only) | ~80,000 | Florida’s largest single-site employer |
| Comcast / NBCUniversal (combined) | 186,000 | Company filings |
| Live Nation Entertainment | 32,200 | Company filings |
| NFL league office (excl. teams) | ~6,700 | League data |
The asymmetry. Disney’s parks workforce (156,000) is larger than the combined headcount of every US nonprofit performing arts company and museum (~258,000) — and Disney is one company. A single Disney park (Walt Disney World, ~80,000) has a workforce roughly 60% the size of every US nonprofit performing arts company combined.
One more comparison point. The combined federal NEA appropriation ($207M, FY2025) plus all 56 state and jurisdictional arts agency appropriations (~$755M, FY2024) totals about $965M. That is roughly 2.8% of Disney Parks’ 2024 revenue, and about 4.2% of NFL annual revenue. Federal cultural support to all of US nonprofit arts is a smaller annual expenditure than what one NFL team (the Dallas Cowboys) earned in profit last year.
So what?
A few things become hard to argue with once you see the numbers.
The nonprofit arts sector is small relative to the cultural economy it sits inside. That doesn’t make it unimportant. It makes it specific. It’s a bounded sector with particular roles — preservation, transmission, training, experimentation, civic gathering — that the commercial sector doesn’t necessarily perform on its own. But the mistake is talking about non-profit culture as if it were the cultural economy.
The commercial culture economy is dominated by a handful of mega-players, and it’s increasingly built around scaled experiences (parks, sports, gaming, streaming) rather than around singular cultural artifacts. The growth is in the systems that consume time, not in the things people own.
Europe still treats cultural infrastructure as a public utility. The US treats it as a philanthropic enterprise. Neither model is producing comfortable institutions right now — both Tate and the Met Museum are running deficits — but the logic of why is different.
The instrumentalization argument that nonprofit arts must justify themselves economically is structurally rigged against the nonprofits. Of course they look small. They are small. The “we contribute X to the economy” argument is one nonprofits cannot win at scale. The argument has to be about what the nonprofit sector does that the commercial sector can’t or won’t do — and that argument requires comfort with the size differential, not denial of it.
Where the money is shapes who shapes culture. The largest cultural employers in this country are theme parks and streaming services. The largest cultural exporters are gaming companies and Hollywood studios. The cultural conversation in the non-profit sphere — opera, museums, theater, dance, classical music, etc. — is happening in the small percentage of the cultural economy where nonprofits operate. That’s still significant. But it’s also worth knowing how big the rest of the room is.
So often I see conversations about the health of non-profit arts and policy discussions about the arts as if the universe is non-profit. So how might the perspective change when you consider non-profit arts next to the larger culture economy?
I compiled this data as of April 2026. All figures sourced from primary documents (audited financials, annual reports, government accounts, industry trade body releases) where available, with substitution to credible secondary reporting where primary documents were not publicly accessible. Currency conversions use approximate 2024 averages. Where ranges or estimates are given, the underlying figure was either not published, contested across sources, or required interpolation across fiscal years.
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