Tour Business Flat in First Half of Year; U2 & Guns N' Roses Lead Grosses

by VVN Music

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.

Seven of the top ten tours so far this year in North America come from veteran artists:

1. U2 ($118.1 million)
2. Metallica ($68.7 million)
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers ($60.5 million)
4. Eric Church ($54.5 million)
5. Garth Brooks ($40.0 million)
6. Bon Jovi ($39.1 million)
7. Tim McGraw & Faith Hill ($36.3 million)
8. The Weeknd ($35.1 million)
9. Cirque du Soleil - "Kurios" ($31.2 million)
10. Dead & Company ($31.0 million)

Worldwide, Guns N' Roses leads all others, including U2:

1. Guns N' Roses ($151.5 million)
2. U2 ($118.1 million)
3. Justin Bieber ($93.2 million)
4. Metallica ($88.0 million)
5. Depeche Mode ($68.2 million)
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers ($60.5 million)
7. Adele ($59.0 million)
8. Ed Sheeran ($57.2 million)
9. Eric Church ($54.5 million)
10. 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.