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Bruno Still Tops, While ‘Dancing With The Stars’, Marilyn Manson, Jeff Daniels Debut On Dramatic Concert Pulse
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NARAS – Bruno Mars
While Bruno Mars, fresh off of a slew of Grammy Award wins as well as Pollstar Awards for Best Urban and Best Pop Tours, is still on top of the Pollstar Global Concert Pulse with an average gross of $3.7 million per city, new entries this week have a bit of a theatrical theme, with Dancing With The Stars (No. 34) , Marilyn Manson (No. 37), and Jeff Daniels taking his music on the road (No. 95) all charting this week.
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.
Mars seems to be only growing his business on the road as new boxoffice reports come in, already improving from last week with an average of 35,781 tickets sold on an average ticket price of $104 to go along with that healthy $3.7 million average gross.
While last year’s $200 million touring juggernaut will be hard to beat, Bruno has close to 70 dates on the books for 2018 already, and announced a final North American leg of his “24k Magic” tour with special guest Cardi B, with dates stretching into October of this year.
He’s playing a lengthy Down Under tour at the moment, and follows with extensive runs through Southeast Asia and then Europe.
While the Dancing With The Stars tour bus was involved in a pile-up before its show in Iowa, forcing the cancellation of that show, the tour appears to be going strong, with the production pulling in a nightly gross of $237,640 on 3,600 average tickets sold.
Individual reports submitted to Pollstar include Feb. 7 at the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, which sold 2,339 tickets and grossed $147,251, and two shows at the Rosemont Theatre in Illinois, which sold out 8,409 tickets and grossed $577,637. Others include Jan. 16 at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, which sold 2,773 tickets and grossed $192,383, and the Altria Theatre in Richmond, Va., Jan. 3, which sold 2,865 and grossed $187,622. The Fox Theatre in Atlanta sold out 4,482 tickets and grossed $344,671 Jan. 2, all with NS2 Shows promoting.
The tour continues through the end of March, ending on the West Coast.
Always with a flair for the dramatic, Marilyn Manson has made headlines for not always the most positive reasons, including being accused of sexual misconduct after having what appeared to be an unscripted abbreviated set Feb. 15 at the Paramount in Long Island, where he left the stage after just a few songs and erratic behavior on stage.
This comes after he suffered a terrifying injury onstage during a show at the Hammerstein Ballroom at the end of September, which forced him to postpone the end of his North American run.
However, his road business remains strong. On the Concert Pulse he’s averaging $211,531 grossed per city with 3,984 tickets sold.
His shows have varied in size, with major arena gigs like SSE Wembley selling 11,210 tickets to the London arena, grossing $523,172 for promoter Kilimanjaro Live Dec. 9, while U.S. dates have been more in the large club/theatre size, such as House of Blues Boston Feb. 12, which sold out 2,425 tickets and grossed $159,405, and Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wis., which sold 1,860 tickets and grossed $98,162 as reported to Pollstar. He also sold out the Fox Theater in Oakland, with 2,828 tickets sold and $180,153 grossed for Another Planet Entertainment Jan. 16.
courtesy Fleming Artists – Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels, perhaps most famous for movie roles in films including the classic “Dumb And Dumber,” “The Martian” and “Looper,” has also had a prolific musical career, with six LPs and pretty steady gigging, with boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar over the last couple of years especially.
“The expectations are so low for an actor with a guitar,” Daniels told Pollstar via his agent, Jim Fleming, adding that he’s had to prove that he can write and play music, which he’s been doing for 40 years, “just on my porch.” He cited influences including Arlo Guthrie, Cheryl Wheeler, Christine Lavin, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Steve Goodman, John Prine, Keb Mo, Daryll Scott, and Chris Stapleton.
Daniels said he learned how work the stage following “all those years around playwrights and screenwriters” and “is not afraid to write funny, to risk being taken seriously and embrace humor.”
Fleming, like Daniels based in Michigan, added: “Jeff is the epitome of what it means to be a professional in the world of touring: he connects with his audiences, he’s respectful and appreciative of the work the promoters do (and their staffs/crew), he supports dates with interviews, he ‘shows up’ when he is supposed to, he does what he says he’s going to do. He has integrity.”
Recent boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar include two shows at the Lexington Village Theatre in Michigan, which sold 590 tickets and grossed $27,826, and City Winery in Chicago which sold 300 tickets and grossed $13,966.
On the chart, Daniels averaged $23,151 per show with 576 tickets sold. Average ticket price was $40.17.