Boxoffice Insider: Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Sam Smith Go Big Abroad

Handout / Helene Marie Pambrun via Getty Images – Harry Styles
Harry Styles makes a stop at AccorHotels Arena in Paris March 13.

Harry Styles, former One Direction idol gone solo, has been selling out at will on his first major world tour, with a European leg recently wrapped and full houses nearly across the board reported to Pollstar. That includes two nights at The O2 London April 11-12 standing out with a combined gross just shy of $2.2 million.

There were plenty of other highlights on the tour leg, which was reported in full and ran from March 11 to April 16. Styles sold 238,230 tickets and grossed $17,581,962, promoted by Live Nation and CAA representing Styles worldwide.

In his native UK, there was 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland (12,614 tickets and grossed $970,530) April 16, The SSE Hydro in Glasgow (10,546, $789,499), Manchester Arena April 9 (13,478, $996,684) and Genting Arena April 7 in Birmingham (12,771, $943,165) – all sold out.

But the 24-year-old Englishman is not only big at home, with multiple shows in Germany (four), Italy (two), and Spain (two).

Some select numbers from those shows include Olympic Hall in Munich March 27 (11,267, $801,337), March 31 at WiZink Center in Madrid (12,108, $882,525) and April 4 at Unipol Arena in Bologna, Italy (12,660, $916,473) – again all sold out.

He strayed further from home with shows in Denmark, Sweden and Norway – with all three of those markets sold out as well: Royal Arena Copenhagen (10,580, $971,088), Ericcson Globe Stockholm (8,578, $711,071), and Oslo Spektrum Arena (9,307, $653,261).

The impressive European run comes after his first headlining gigs in the U.S. in fall 2017, which saw him playing venues like The Masonic in San Francisco, Greek 

Theatre Los Angeles and Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Next up was a run of Australian arenas, followed by Asia and South America,before a 23-date summer run of North American arenas with Kacey Musgraves, who just released a new LP, kicks off in June and wraps in July with two shows at the Forum in California. 

John Salangsang / Invision / AP – Sam Smith
Sam Smith feels the love from the crowd at KIIS FM Jingle Ball at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., Dec. 1.

Styles’ touring is one of many major European tours in the first quarter that also includes Kendrick Lamar, Imagine Dragons, Sam Smith, and Metallica, which had a monster run that included two-night sellouts at venues such as WiZink Center in Madrid ($3.7 million) and Unipol Arena in Bologna, Italy, ($2.8 million).

Lamar’s European run was particularly impressive as, fresh off his Grammy-opening medley and multiple award wins, sold out everything, with notable reports including Telenor Arena in Norway (21,653 tickets,  $1.8 million), two nights at AccorHotels Arena in Paris ($3 million), and two more at The O2 arena in London, which grossed another $3.36 million.

Imagine Dragons have also quietly become an international force, having just wrapped a European tour that CODA agent James Whitting said grossed a total of $20.4 million and had the demand to support another 10 to 15 shows.

“They played 25 shows on this run due to time constraints and needing to get the band to other corners of the world, but we could have easily added another 10-15 shows in Europe as the demand is so high,” Whitting told Pollstar.

“The band have been consistent in their approach to the European market and it is starting to pay huge dividends. They will be heading back to Europe later on in the summer to headline some festivals and to play their first headline stadium shows.”

Some reports from that run include WiZink Center in Madrid April 7 (16,162, $1.2 million), March 4 at the SSE Hydro in Scotland (12,382, $630,650) and Feb. 16 at Antwerps Sportpaleis in Belgium, which sold 20,272 tickets and grossed $954,137.

K.Flay, who also joined the band for U.S. arenas last year, supported on this run as well.

The “Thunder” hit-makers hit Australia starting May 12, before kicking off another major North American arena and amphitheatre trek in June that runs into August.

Sam Smith is another with a major Euro run this year, and has a massive North American June to September tour. The Euro leg included two sold-out 3Arena gigs in Dublin ($1.5 million), two at Manchester Arena ($1.9 million) and two at the SSE Hydro ($1.3 million). Later this year he’ll also hit Asia and Australia taking him near the end of 2018.

Subtracting North America from some of the largest worldwide tours last year shows some major international hauls, such as Coldplay ($154.3 million), Depeche Mode ($106.7 million), Bruno Mars ($87.7 million), Guns N’ Roses ($194.5 million), Justin Bieber ($79.2 million), Paul McCartney ($76.2 million), and the mighty U2, which brought in just under $140 million overseas to go along with its already huge $176.1 million in North America.

Looking ahead, some major Euro runs include Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake (nine dates in Germany alone), the stadium monster tours from Taylor Swift and Beyonce/Jay-Z, and comedian Kevin Hart, whose markets such distant lands as The Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, and three Sweden dates.

And, of course, Ed Sheeran has just embarked on yet another almost seemingly never-ending run of dates.

The “Shape Of You” star has a 40-plus date European leg that includes 28 stadium shows in the UK and Ireland alone.

Then in August he’ll be back on North American soil, with more stadiums including two nights at Rogers Centre in Toronto, two at Gillette Stadium near Boston, and ending in November at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta