Adult visitors will now be charged $15 to see Sir Peter Jackson's The Great War exhibition in Wellington's Pukeahu National War Memorial Park.
The exhibition is the second most popular attraction in the capital after Te Papa, according to Travel website TripAdvisor, but it was set up with minimal ongoing operational funding. The pressure to deliver day to day, as well as develop the exhibition, is proving costly.
Fran Wilde, chairwoman of the National Military Heritage Charitable Trust, which runs the exhibition, said the business model that was adopted when the exhibition opened 10 months ago was not financially sustainable.
"Visitor numbers have been very high - well over 180,000 since opening in April 2015. But running the exhibition is resource intensive, with our guided tours proving very popular. This success is putting pressure on slim resources, with high need for crowd management, security and cleaning services, as well as the customer service staff.