Pollstar is out with their mid-year analysis of the touring business and, so far in 2017, business is flat.
Total grosses for the top fifty worldwide tours grew between 2014 by $330 million dollars from $1.65 billion in 2014 to $1.73 billion in 2015 to $1.98 billion in 2016; however, the mid-year number for 2017 is just $1.97 billion, a loss of half-a-percent.
On the brighter side, total tickets sold did grow. What was 18 million in 2014 grew to 22.6 million in 2016 and to 23.4 million in 2017; however, that means that the average ticket price has dropped over that same time from $91.71 (2014) to $84.40 (2017). Great news for the concertgoer but not good for the artists and promoters.
The top ten tours so far this year in North America:
U2 ($118.1 million)
Metallica ($68.7 million)
Red Hot Chili Peppers ($60.5 million)
Eric Church ($54.5 million)
Garth Brooks ($40.0 million)
Bon Jovi ($39.1 million)
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill ($36.3 million)
The Weeknd ($35.1 million)
Cirque du Soleil – “Kurios” ($31.2 million)
Dead & Company ($31.0 million)
Worldwide, Guns N’ Roses leads all others, including U2:
Guns N’ Roses ($151.5 million)
U2 ($118.1 million)
Justin Bieber ($93.2 million)
Metallica ($88.0 million)
Depeche Mode ($68.2 million)
Red Hot Chili Peppers ($60.5 million)
Adele ($59.0 million)
Ed Sheeran ($57.2 million)
Eric Church ($54.5 million)
Bruno Mars ($52.7 million)
The single biggest concert gross of the year, so far, is Guns N’ Roses London Stadium shows which sold 139 thousand tickets and grossed $17.3 million over two nights.
