Concert Pulse: U2 Tops $9M; Bob Seger, Glass Animals Debut

U2’s average gross has ballooned to a whopping $9.23 million per event, with 23 reports submitted to Pollstar averaging 79,661 tickets sold per night. 

David Jensen / PA via AP – U2
U2 performs The Joshua Tree at Twickenham Stadium in London July 8.

U2 submitted reports for its five-month “Joshua Tree 2017Tour,” which included 50 headline shows in North America, Europe and South America, grossing a combined total of about $316 million. Promoted by Live Nation, the tour featured Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, OneRepublic, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Beck as support on various dates.

Click here for this week’s Pollstar Global Concert Pulse

We’ll have to see how the Year End average grosses shake out. Last year’s top average gross was The Rolling Stones at more than $9 million per show. U2’s 2015 average gross was a staggering $6.92 million. The Grateful Dead’s 2015 “Fare Thee Well” shows smashed everyone with an average of more than $26 million, but that was only five shows.

Guns N’ Roses (No. 4 on the chart, average gross of $3.46 million) will be U2’s chief competition for Tour Of The Year honors, with $243 million already grossed in 2017, and the group will remain on tour in North American arenas throughout November.

Coldplay was somehow a distant second on the Concert Pulse Chart, which ranks by average gross per night. That’s while considering Chris Martin and company are grossing more than $6.1 million per night and sold more than 60,782 tickets per night on its “Head Full Of Dreams” tour based on 23 reports over the last three months.

New to this week’s chart was Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band at No. 16, which averaged 12,076 tickets per show and grossed $1.08 million according to Pollstar data.

Scott Legato / RockStarProPhotography.com – Bob Seger
The Palace Of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Mich.

Box office submissions include Sept. 28 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh (13,515 tickets, $1.24 million gross) and Sept. 21 and U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati (12,046, $1.03 million).

With 19 arena dates left on his 2017 “Runaway Train Tour,” Seger was forced to postpone the remainder of the tour citing doctors orders “to attend to an urgent medical issue concerning his vertebrate.”  All 13 previous shows on the tour were sold out, according to Seger, with Pollstar box office reports confirming many of those.

Also new on the chart were UK indie band Glass Animals, at No. 62 with an average gross per show of $120,251 and 3,171 tickets sold. 

Pollstar has reports from shows including Oct. 8-9 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., which sold out 2,400 tickets and grossed $98,400, 1,764 tickets at MTELUS in Montreal Oct. 3, 2,300 tickets at Stage AE in Pittsburgh July 31, which grossed $82,800 and Aug. 2 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Conn., which moved 2,034 tickets and grossed $68,020.

The band had been on the festival circuit for much of the summer including Reading and Leeds, Lollapalooza and Electric Fields, but did a nice headline run in the fall, with other dates including Massey Hall in Toronto, The Fillmore Philadelphia and Agganis Arena in Boston.  

John Davisson – Glass Animals
Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Empire Polo Field, Indio, Calif.

The band’s manager, Amy Morgan, told Pollstar, “Glass Animals have had a brilliant year.  Getting to play iconic venues such as Radio City, Santa Barbara Bowl, The Greek, Red Rocks etc is special for any artist.  Equally Glass Animals shine at festivals and have enjoyed playing to some huge crowds over the summer.  The band have spent a lot of time touring in the U.S. and it’s crazy to think that the first headline show was only 3 years ago! Its been an incredible journey and there is so much more to come.” The band is booked by CAA.

Next up for the band, still supporting its 2016 LP How To Be  A Human Being, is Falls Festival in Australia at the end of the year, and All Points East in London in May.

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.