Features
Concert Pulse: Taylor Swift Grosses $10.3 Million Per City; Stones, Queen Bey/Jay-Z Close Behind
Kimberly Carrillo – Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift kicks off her “Reputation Stadium Tour” at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., May 8.
Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour continues to put up blockbuster numbers, with stops reported in 10 cities so far grossing just shy of $103 million for an average of 82,125 tickets each.
The latest from the mammoth tour that will take in 50-plus stadiums in North America, the UK, Australia and Japan in 2018 has her selling well more than 50,000 tickets per show, with eye-popping stops including two nights at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia July 13-14, where she moved a combined 107,378 tickets and grossed $11.95 million, and another two at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., where she sold 95,672 tickets and grossed $11.39 million.
Single-night stops include Ohio Stadium in Columbus July 7 (62,897, $6.06 million) and (the formerly named Papa John’s) Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Ky., which sold out at 52,138 tickets and gossed $4.92 million June 30.
With an average ticket price of $125, demand for Swift has shown no sign of slowing down, and she has three-night stadium stops starting Friday night in New Jersey and Foxboro, Mass., that may further prove just how big she is.
The new Swift data come after Pollstar’s Mid-Year Top 100 Worldwide and Top 100 North American features, which include estimates for shows not yet reported to Pollstar.
As the Pollstar Global Concert Pulse chart ranks tours by average gross per market appearance, tours with multiple-night stays are given extra weight. Still, a very select few can touch the $10 million mark, such as The Rolling Stones, whose recent European leg puts them at a close second with $9.14 million grossed per city.
Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie kicked off their European leg with three shows at London Stadium May 22-25, which sold 137,475 tickets for a combined $20.5 million gross.
To put the Stones’ touring might into perspective, those three shows alone would have been enough to put them at No. 49 on Pollstar’s Mid-Year Top 100 Worldwide tours.
The Stones did another six dates in the UK, including Twickenham Stadium ($11.1 million), Principality Stadium in Cardiff ($6.6 million), Murrayfield Stadium ($8.2 million) and Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester, which grossed $7.3 million.
Still with just 12 shows, the leg was good to put them at No. 3 for the year to date, with $100.8 million grossed as fans eagerly await a full North American tour.
Last year’s Stones European leg running Sept-Oct. was a similar story, with 14 shows grossing $119 million for promoter Concerts West / AEG Presents.
Concerts West Co-CEO John Meglen told Pollstar at the time, “We very much want to keep where and when they play special. It should be unique. Besides an amazing show you’re talking about creating an amazing memory for people, so we want that to be really, really cool.”
Keeping up the theme of stadiums as well as Europe, numbers begin to come in for the Jay-Z / Beyonce co-bill, and they’re just as big as expected, with an average gross per market of $5.6 million and 55,825 tickets sold for the power couple after Beyonce’s show-stopping Coachella performance in April setting the tone.
Multiple-night sellouts include June 19-20 at Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam, which sold 97,869 tickets and grossed $9.7 million, and June 15-16 at London Stadium which sold 126,443 tickets and grossed $11.1 million. The Live Nation / CAA tour kicks off its U.S. leg July 25 at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, running into October.
With a plethora of dizzying numbers after Pollstar’s Mid-Year Special Features, there’s no shortage of numbers to examine, and new Concert Pulse entries from major artists including the following:
15. Luke Bryan $1,720,620 22,437 $76.68 12
23. Shania Twain $1,123,788 12,578 $89.34 11
25. Sam Smith $1,061,296 16,248 $65.32 11
31 Post Malone $732,684 12,085 $60.62 27
39 Alan Jackson $526,976 9,067 $58.12 11
52 Joe Bonamassa $329,084 2,770 $118.80 12
53 Little Big Town $326,326 6,256 $52.15 16
87 Yes $90,731 1,438 $63.07 13