The Late-Tom Petty, Peppa Pig Debut on Pollstar Global Concert Pulse Chart

U2 and Coldplay remained neck-and-neck on this week’s Pollstar Global Concert Pulse Chart with Bono and company edging out Coldplay’s average ticket sales by just 1,299. But the band’s average ticket price put U2’s average gross about $1.1 million higher.  

Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP – Tom Petty
Performing at the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

U2’s The Joshua Tree 2017 tour is selling an average 67,380 tickets over the last three months according to the chart, with Coldplay at 66,081. That’s an average gross per show of $7.6 million for U2 and $6.5 million for Coldplay.

Looking ahead, always looming are The Rolling Stones, who just did 14 dates in Europe, with the last show being tonight at Paris’ brand new U Arena. Click here to read Pollstar’s story on the Stones’ European tour stage production.

A U.S. tour is expected but nothing has been announced yet. Pollstar has data from the Stones’ Amsterdam Arena show in The Netherlands Sept. 30, which moved 54,815 tickets and grossed $8.58 million (euro 7.2 million).

New to the chart this week was Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, which posthumously  reported 13 cities, and an average gross of $2.4 million, averaging 23,096 tickets before Petty unexpectedly passed. The data puts Petty at No. 7 for the week and caps off an impressive touring career, which he completed Sept. 25 at the Hollywood Bowl where he played three shows to wrap up a major tour.

Since 1985, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have sold 6.5 million concert tickets according to Pollstar data. Petty’s touring high-water mark was in 1995, when he ranked seventh on Pollstar’s top tours of the year, grossing $27.5 million, which adjusting for inflation would put the figure at $44 million.

Pollstar expects Tom to top $70 million when all 2017 performances are accounted for, and for his final gross for the years 1985 through 2017 top $366.4 million in actual dollars or $469.4 million in 2017 dollars.

Also new on the chart this week is Peppa Pig Live, based on the preschool-age children’s show. Peppa and the gang are grossing $79,394 per night with average ticket sales of 1,989 and ticket price a relatively family-friendly average of $39.91. 

Despite the child-friendly theme, the Peppa tour is a bit of a monster, with 37 dates left this year and dates already announced for spring of 2018. Peppa Pig Live has already been on Pollstar’s radar and was featured as a HotStar cover artist in January 2016. Peppa Pig Live is booked by CAA’s Mario Tirado. 

Courtesy Red Light Management – Peppa Pig Takes The Stage

Big recent box office reports from Peppa Pig include two shows at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre (2,238 tickets, $85,365 gross) Oct. 8, Alabama Theatre Oct. 1 (2,071 tickets, $73,162), and Sept. 28 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, which moved 2,735 tickets and grossed $124,550.

Debuting at 42 on the chart this week is the Matchbox Twenty / Counting Crows tour, which sold an average 9,551 tickets and grossed an average of $381,187. Pollstar interviewed Matchbox Twenty drummer and Miley Cyrus music director Stacy Jones during the tour (Link), where he told stories of working with Bob Rock, meeting Elvis Costello, and more.

Click here for the full Concert Pulse Chart. 

Pollstar’s Global Concert Pulse ranks each artist by its average boxoffice gross per city worldwide and is based on data reported within the last three months. All figures in U.S. dollars.