The Rise Of Int’l On Pollstar’s 3Q Promoters Chart

The Top 100 Promoters have moved more tickets so far this year than they had after three-quarters of 2016, and the total gross is also up, according to Pollstar’s 3Q Chart.  

It’s the usual suspects at the top of the chart, with Live Nation and AEG Presents dominating, particularly in the North American market, followed by Mexico’s OCESA / CIE and North America’s Feld Entertainment as the leading independent promoters. Those companies have comprised the top 4 on Pollstar’s 3Q list each year since 2012. In this year’s Q3 Chart, the total gross from outside the U.S. and Canada made up roughly 40 percent of the total reported gross.

Live Nation and AEG Presents, in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, together made up 57 percent of the total gross and 54 percent of the tickets sold by the Top 100 promoters for 2017’s 3Q. Last year, LN and AEG comprised 52 percent of the total gross and 51 percent of the tickets sold by the Top 100 promoters as of 2016’s third quarter.

The total number of tickets reported so far this year is 81,526,693, a 1.41 percent increase from the 80,395,010 tickets reported at the same point in 2016. The reported total gross is $5,035,671,980, a 1.2 percent increase from the previous year’s $4,976,098,999. These totals are best viewed as estimates, as joint-promoted shows have sometimes been double-counted.

Vilhelm Stokstad / TT via AP – Guns N
Guns N’ Roses brings its “Not In This Lifetime Tour” to Friends Arena in Stockholm June 29.

A quick glance at the chart shows that countries outside the United States are marked in parenthesis, although they comprise nearly half of the top 100. Including LN, AEG, and Feld – which all do substantial business outside the U.S. and Canada – 48 companies of the top 100 promoters are based outside of North America. Although Mexico is geographically very much a part of North America, for the purposes of our analysis we included it in the international category.

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said at a recent conference that one of his company’s goals is to expand into new international markets, and the numbers indeed indicate that the promotion giant is following through on that. After reporting 7,247,200 tickets moved outside the U.S. and Canada in 2016, Live Nation reported 9,289,321 tickets internationally in 2017 – an increase of 28.18 percent. Live Nation’s total reported tickets worldwide increased 10.65 percent, from 29,963,691 to 33,156,207.

AEG also increased its international presence, going from 1,592,675 reported tickets at 2016’s 3Q to 1,683,027 at 2017’s 3Q and its overall number of reported tickets also climbed from 10,795,327 to 11,019,295.

While the majority of our reported tickets still come in from North America, the total gross for 2017’s 3Q from outside the U.S. and Canada was sizeable at $2,003,148,868, about 40 percent of the total reported gross. Last year at the third quarter mark, the gross for shows outside the U.S. and Canada was at about 38 percent of the total reported gross.

The total number of tickets reports outside the U.S. and Canada, including those from U.S.-based Live Nation, AEG, and Feld, increased 5.33 percent, from 27,324,522 in last year’s 3Q Top 100 to 2,003,148,868 this year, again with a big chunk of that increase being taken by Live Nation and AEG.

The United Kingdom and Germany are tied at eight promoters in 2017’s 3Q Top 100, the most of any country outside of the U.S. The United Kingdom’s highest ranked promoter is SJM at No. 5 and Germany’s is FKP Scorpio Konzertproduktionen at No. 12. Our Box Office department wanted to give a special shout out to all German promoters, who are generally excellent about reporting their data.

Outside of the U.S. and Europe, Australia has the next-most promoters in 2017’s 3Q Top 100 at five.

Live Nation promoted Guns N’ Roses tour, which was at No. 1 for Pollstar’s 3Q Worldwide Top 100 Tours, with 2,244,721 tickets sold. So far this year GNR has played Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and North America.

The 3Q ticket sales charts are comprised of figures as reported to Pollstar for shows played between Jan. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2017.

Pollstar’s database is continually updated and our charts reflect the data reported at the time the charts were issued. Promoters and venues can click here to submit their box office data.