By The Associated Press
(AP) -- The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average
box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price
for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in
parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade
publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) The Rolling Stones; $7,969,276; $346.08.
2. (2) Taylor Swift; $2,072,961; $84.02.
3. (3) Kenny Chesney; $1,829,281; $76.47.
4. (4) Bon Jovi; $1,622,485; $106.01.
5. (New) Fleetwood Mac; $1,426,254; $111.75.
6. (5) Maroon 5; $879,457; $62.99.
7. (6) Jason Aldean; $754,571; $51.28.
8. (7) Brad Paisley; $578,398; $36.74.
9. (8) Carrie Underwood; $497,868; $62.07.
10. (9) Leonard Cohen; $489,734; $106.77.
11. (10) Green Day; $469,164; $50.47.
12. (11) Motley Crue; $332,400; $78.37.
13. (New) Widespread Panic; $281,496; $42.36.
14. (12) Bassnectar; $179,128; $36.44.
15. (13) Diana Krall; $176,499; $83.60.
16. (15) Chris Tomlin; $163,206; $28.29.
17. (17) Shinedown / Three Days Grace; $156,081; $39.40.
18. (16) Il Divo; $152,184; $76.21.
19. (19) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds; $142,644; $52.23.
20. (20) Willie Nelson; $133,423; $55.67.

thought the Beach Boys would me somewhere on the list

'Stones can't sell tickets' were the headlines during the tour.
Well well.

as they "RULE" again

So the figure is given as per city as opposed to per show. $7.9m per city and they played 12 different cities putting their income at $95, 631,312

I wonder what the return was ...

Poor Taylor Swift finishing second on a meagre $2m per city

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BowieStone
'Stones can't sell tickets' were the headlines during the tour.
Well well.

Well it was quite obvious,that they could not sell tickets at the original prices they were asking,and in order to have mostly full arenas they had to reduce prices drastically,big difference from what they had been asking at the beginning of the tour $600.00 and up,and then had to reduce prices to $85.00.Quite embarrassing imo...

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

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reg thorpe
thought the Beach Boys would me somewhere on the list

Didn't they stop touring last year, only to be succeeded by Mike Love's "Beach Boys" this year?

I'm pretty sure Love's band won't be able to make this list.

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ROPENI

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BowieStone
'Stones can't sell tickets' were the headlines during the tour.
Well well.

Well it was quite obvious,that they could not sell tickets at the original prices they were asking,and in order to have mostly full arenas they had to reduce prices drastically,big difference from what they had been asking at the beginning of the tour $600.00 and up,and then had to reduce prices to $85.00.Quite embarrassing imo...

I think selling out with an average price of $346 is not thát embarrassing.
The Stones might be the only touring act who can pull that off.

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BowieStone

Quote
ROPENI

Quote
BowieStone
'Stones can't sell tickets' were the headlines during the tour.
Well well.

Well it was quite obvious,that they could not sell tickets at the original prices they were asking,and in order to have mostly full arenas they had to reduce prices drastically,big difference from what they had been asking at the beginning of the tour $600.00 and up,and then had to reduce prices to $85.00.Quite embarrassing imo...

I think selling out with an average price of $346 is not thát embarrassing.
The Stones might be the only touring act who can pull that off.

Agreed BowwieStone,$346..ave is great,but when the tour first was announced,their greed got the better of them,with the original prices,and then for them to have to drastically reduce prices as to not being embarrassed with half full arenas,l think it did much damage to their legacy,but that s just my opinion....

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

Not at all. Their stategy to hold the scalpers at bay worked brilliantly. And once fans figured things out, they made the necessary adjustments.

This is based on one week, as it states in the article.

And the Stones were #1 the previous week as well!

They should be. They're a) on tour and b) charging five times as much as everybody else!

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gimmelittledrink
Not at all. Their stategy to hold the scalpers at bay worked brilliantly. And once fans figured things out, they made the necessary adjustments.

Agreed...

Although we could never know, I wonder what the average price would have been if they would have used Bigger Bang ticket prices and allowed the scalpers to get involved. We'd only ever know the "official average price" as opposed to having after-market increases added in, but for all we know, if they priced this tour where WE thought it should be, the average price still could have ended up at $346 once the scalpers added in their "fees".

Another thing I'd be interested in knowing is the percentage of revenue that went to the scalpers on this tour as compared to the last tour. Somehow I have a feeling that number would be significantly lower now than in the past.

I find the current method of trying to keep the scalpers/secondary market pretty interesting and somewhat effective. From a PR standpoint, it was somewhat messy. Unfortunately, I doubt the press is all that interested in reporting how it all worked out in the end. Far more eye catching headlines to show high prices and outrage from fans than it would be to show that an effective buisness model has been able to squeeze out the parasites in the after-market ticket industry.

Peace,
Mr DJA

Yeah, just like I thought... all those people bitching about the Stones playing to half empty arena's... NOT! The Stones aren't going to make an average of almost 8 Million dollars a show playing to half empty halls...

The Rolling Stones LEADING the pack.
As usual.

I feel bad for those "fans" who doubted them.
Same group belly aching about MT's playing time and the set lists etc.

People just like to criticize and complain about that which they know little.

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its good to be anywhere
Yeah, just like I thought... all those people bitching about the Stones playing to half empty arena's... NOT! The Stones aren't going to make an average of almost 8 Million dollars a show playing to half empty halls...

Thats $8 million in a week. Not per show. $8 million at $346 a ticket equates to about 23,120 tickets. Which means they played two shows that week to an average of 11,560 people. (The Stones' guarantee for these shows was in the region of $4 million plus per show - they get that even if the venue is sold out or half full)

If those figures are right, then the venues were somewhat short of capacity. They werent really THAT short as it turned out because a lot of the tickets were sold at reduced prices to fill the arenas. So whilst $346 may have been the average original price, if they were selling, say, 14,000 tickets in the end and grossing that kind of amount it would have meant that the final average price would have been reduced in order for them to do so. There's always a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to box office figures, especially for the Stones. Even on the last tour they were listing shows like Soldier Field in October 2006 as having sold 30,000 and it was listed as a 'sell out' (despite the fact that they had played to over 50,000 people there 13 months earlier)

There's absolutely no question that they werent selling the pricier tickets at the amount they originally asked for. The day before or day of pretty much every show you could go into ticketmaster and get the more expensive seats. For the last couple of weeks they were offering cut price deals a few days in advance.

In short, they didnt play to half empty arenas - but the promoters did have to do a few firesales to make sure they were full or close to capacity.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-28 17:35 by camper88.

It's "per city"
AKA per SHOW.

i really enjoyed their show
but
it was sad to watch the stones struggle to sell tickets and fill arenas
for such a limited number of dates and after not touring for years
and
even sadder to see how they jerked fans around with the ticket prices.

history will be kind to their performances on this tour, but
i don't think it will be considered a major success in terms of fan response or profit